Author

Andres RP, Bein T , Feng S , Henderson JI , Kubiak CP , Mahoney W , Osifchin RG , Reifenberger R .

Institution

Sch. of Chem. Eng., Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN, USA.

Title

"Coulomb staircase" at room temperature in a self-assembled molecular nanostructure.

Source

Science, vol.272, no.5266, 31 May 1996, pp.1323-5. Publisher: American Assoc. Adv. Sci, USA.

Abstract

Double-ended aryl dithiols alpha , alpha '-xylyldithiol (XYL) and 4,4'-biphenyldithiol formed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold (111) substrates and were used to tether nanometer-sized gold clusters deposited from a cluster beam. An ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope was used to image these nanostructures and to measure their current-voltage characteristics as a function of the separation between the probe tip and the metal cluster. At room temperature, when the tip was positioned over a cluster bonded to the XYL SAM, the current-voltage data showed "Coulomb staircase" behavior. These data are in good agreement with semiclassical predictions for correlated single-electron tunneling and permit estimation of the electrical resistance of a single XYL molecule (~18+or-12 megohms). (20 References).