Transition From Direct To Inverted Charge Transport Marcus Regions In Molecular Junctions Via Molecular Orbital Gating

Abstract

Solid-state molecular tunnel junctions are often assumed to operate in the Landauer regime, which describes essentially activationless coherent tunnelling processes. In solution, on the other hand, charge transfer is described by Marcus theory, which accounts for thermally activated processes. In practice, however, thermally activated transport phenomena are frequently observed also in solid-state molecular junctions but remain poorly understood. Here, we show experimentally the transition from the Marcus to the inverted Marcus region in a solid-state molecular tunnel junction by means of intra-molecular orbital gating that can be tuned via the chemical structure of the molecule and applied bias. In the inverted Marcus region, charge transport is incoherent, yet virtually independent of temperature. Our experimental results fit well to a theoretical model that combines Landauer and Marcus theories and may have implications for the interpretation of temperature-dependent charge transport measurements in molecular junctions.

Publication Date

4-1-2018

Publication Title

Nature Nanotechnology

Volume

13

Issue

4

Number of Pages

322-329

Document Type

Article

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-018-0068-4

Socpus ID

85044438570 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85044438570

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