Vibration-Assisted Electron Tunneling in C140 Transistors

Nano Lett., 5 (2), 203 -207, 2005. 10.1021/nl048619c S1530-6984(04)08619-9
Web Release Date: January 7, 2005

Vibration-Assisted Electron Tunneling in C₁₄₀ Transistors

A. N. Pasupathy, J. Park, C. Chang, A. V. Soldatov, S. Lebedkin, R. C. Bialczak, J. E. Grose, L. A. K. Donev, J. P. Sethna, D. C. Ralph, and P. L. McEuen*

Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, Physics Department, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, Department of Physics, Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden, and Institut für Nanotechnologie, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, D-76021 Karlsruhe, Germany

Received August 25, 2004

Abstract:

We measure electron tunneling in transistors made from C₁₄₀, a molecule with a mass-spring-mass geometry chosen as a model system to study electron-vibration coupling. We observe vibration-assisted tunneling at an energy corresponding to the stretching mode of C₁₄₀. Molecular modeling provides explanations for why this mode couples more strongly to electron tunneling than to the other internal modes of the molecule. We make comparisons between the observed tunneling rates and those expected from the Franck-Condon model.

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