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).