Tuning the conductance of a molecular wire by the interplay of donor and acceptor units

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

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Abstract

We investigate the conductance of optimized donor-acceptor-donor molecular wires obtained by on-surface synthesis on the Au(111) surface. A careful balance between acceptors and donors is achieved using a diketopyrrolopyrrole acceptor and two thiophene donors per unit along the wire. Scanning tunneling microscopy imaging, spectroscopy, and conductance measurements done by pulling a single molecular wire at one end are presented. We show that the conductance of the obtained wires is among the highest reported so far in a tunneling transport regime, with an inverse decay length of 0.17 Å−1. Using complex band structure calculations, different donor and acceptor groups are discussed, showing how a balanced combination of donor and acceptor units along the wire can further minimize the decay of the tunneling current with length.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)17131-17139
Number of pages9
JournalNanoscale
Volume10
Issue number36
Publication statusPublished - 28 Sept 2018
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 30182095
ORCID /0000-0001-9607-8715/work/142252625
ORCID /0000-0002-4531-691X/work/148607612

Keywords

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