Journal
NATURE NANOTECHNOLOGY
Volume 4, Issue 4, Pages 230-234Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2009.10
Keywords
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Funding
- Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the US Department of Energy [DE-AC02-98CH10886]
- NSF [CHE-0117752, CHE-0641532, CHE-07-44185]
- New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR)
- KISTI Supercomputing Center [KSC-2007-S00-1011]
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Chemistry [0744185] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Molecular-scale components are expected to be central to the realization of nanoscale electronic devices(1-3). Although molecular-scale switching has been reported in atomic quantum point contacts(4-6), single-molecule junctions provide the additional flexibility of tuning the on/off conductance states through molecular design. To date, switching in single-molecule junctions has been attributed to changes in the conformation or charge state of the molecule(7-12). Here, we demonstrate reversible binary switching in a single-molecule junction by mechanical control of the metal-molecule contact geometry. We show that 4,4'-bipyridine-gold single-molecule junctions can be reversibly switched between two conductance states through repeated junction elongation and compression. Using first-principles calculations, we attribute the different measured conductance states to distinct contact geometries at the flexible but stable nitrogen-gold bond: conductance is low when the N-Au bond is perpendicular to the conducting pi-system, and high otherwise. This switching mechanism, inherent to the pyridine-gold link, could form the basis of a new class of mechanically activated single-molecule switches.
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