Abstract
Temperature-dependent current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of a molecule, 1,4-benzenedimetfaanethiol, was measured for 30 K < T < 300 K by a method of contact made by the electrochemical deposition of a platinum electrode in a lateral configuration. The I-V characteristics are nonlinear and asymmetric in the entire temperature range and the current decreases with decreasing temperature down to 40 K. Below 40 K, the I-V characteristics become temperature independent. The asymmetric I-V characteristics can be understood as arising from a better contact on one side (made by the self-assembled monolayer) than on the other side (made by the electrochemically deposited Pt electrode). The activation energy of thermally activated conduction for T > 100 K is typically 0.11 eV. For T < 40 K, the observed temperature independent I-V characteristics are fitted to the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling expression with barrier height of 1-2 eV depending on the contact strength of samples.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 4756-4758 |
Number of pages | 3 |
Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
Volume | 85 |
Issue number | 20 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 15 Nov 2004 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the National Research Laboratory program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Korea. Work done in Sweden was supported by the Sweden Strategic Research Fund (CARAMEL consortium) and STINT. Partial support for Y. W. P. was provided by the Royal Swedish Academy of Science.