Tuning the thermal conductance of molecular junctions with interference effects

We present an ab initio study of the role of interference effects in the thermal conductance of single-molecule junctions. To be precise, using a first-principles transport method based on density functional theory, we analyze the coherent phonon transport in single-molecule junctions made of severa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2017-12, Vol.96 (24), Article 245419
Main Authors: Klöckner, J. C., Cuevas, J. C., Pauly, F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Benzene
Density functional theory
Energy transmission
First principles
Heat transfer
Hybrid systems
Interference
Refrigerators
Thermal conductivity
Thermoelectric generators
Transport
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Summary:We present an ab initio study of the role of interference effects in the thermal conductance of single-molecule junctions. To be precise, using a first-principles transport method based on density functional theory, we analyze the coherent phonon transport in single-molecule junctions made of several benzene and oligo(phenylene ethynylene) derivatives. We show that the thermal conductance of these junctions can be tuned via the inclusion of substituents, which induces destructive interference effects and results in a decrease of the thermal conductance with respect to the unmodified molecules. In particular, we demonstrate that these interference effects manifest as antiresonances in the phonon transmission, whose energy positions can be tuned by varying the mass of the substituents. Our work provides clear strategies for the heat management in molecular junctions and, more generally, in nanostructured metal-organic hybrid systems, which are important to determine how these systems can function as efficient energy-conversion devices such as thermoelectric generators and refrigerators.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.96.245419