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Departmental Seminars
Quantum transport phenomena in single-molecule junctions
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B228 (ΘΕΕ02)
B228
ΘΕΕ02
UCY Department of Physics Lecture Room 1 (Aglantzia Campus)
Description
Abstract: Single-molecule junctions enable the study of a broad range of quantum transport phenomena even at room temperature [1]. These quantum features are related to molecular orbital and spin degrees of freedom and are characterized by various energy scales that can be chemically and physically adjusted. The competition between the energy scales leads to a rich variety of quantum transport processes. To study these, we have developed several techniques to create solid-state, single-molecule devices [2] in which molecules are deposited from solution. Devices include mechanical controlled break junctions, molecular transistors made by a self-breaking electromigration technique, and room-temperature stable molecular transistors created by electroburning of few-layer graphene. Using these different techniques, a wide variety of molecules has been studied. In this talk, I will present three examples: mechanosensitive molecules in which quantum interference features give rise to large conductance changes, magnetic molecules of which the thermoelectric signal contains information about the (spin) entropy of the state involved in transport and all-organic biradicals in which spin states are tuned mechanically and by the electric field of a gate.
[1] Single-molecule quantum-transport phenomena in break junctions, P. Gehring, J.M. Thijssen and H.S.J. van der Zant, Nature Reviews Physics 1 (2019) 381–396 (DOI: 10.1038/s42254-019-0055-1).
[2] Single-molecule transistors, M.L. Perrin, E. Burzurí and H.S.J. van der Zant, Chem. Soc. Rev. 44 (2015) 902–919 (DOI: 10.1039/C4CS00231H).
About the speaker: Herre S.J. van der Zant is a professor phyics at Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology. He obtained his Ph.D in 1991 at the Delft University of Technology on measurements of classical and quantum phase transitions in Josephson junction arrays. After his Ph.D, he worked on superconducting electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 2005, Prof van der Zant cofounded the Molecular Electronics and Devices group in the Kavli Institute for Nanoscience at Delft. His research focuses on transport through single molecules and nano-electromechanical systems.
