Single Electron Tunneling through a Tailored Arylthio-coronene

• Published in: Journal of physical chemistry. C 2011-05, Vol.115 (18), p.9204-9209
• Main Authors: Kowalzik, Peter, Atodiresei, Nicolae, Gingras, Marc, Caciuc, Vasile, Blügel, Stefan, Waser, Rainer, Karthäuser, Silvia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: C: Electron Transport, Optical and Electronic Devices, Hard Matter
• ISSN: 1932-7447; 1932-7455
• DOI: 10.1021/jp2018007

The possibility to control the charge transport properties in molecular scale devices strongly depends upon the nature of the molecule–metal interfaces, causing an intense request to engineer at molecular level the interface properties. Here, we report on single electron tunneling effects observed in a STM-tip/single molecule/substrate device at room temperature using a molecule with a three-dimensional aromatic system. The molecule consists of a coronene core per-substituted with arylthio groups which are tailored in such a way that the aromatic system is efficiently decoupled from the metal substrate, and thus a double-barrier tunnel junction is created by means of a built-in insulating spacer. Comparing ab initio calculations with the experimental observations allows us to identify the specific arrangement of the substituents in the most stable conformer of this molecule. The tailored molecular structure in combination with the identified adsorption geometry controls the electron transport behavior and results in single electron transport features.