Measurement of single molecule conductance: Benzenedithiol and benzenedimethanethiol

We have studied electron transport properties of benzenedithiol and benzenedimethanethiol covalently bonded to gold electrodes by repeatedly creating a large number of molecular junctions. For each molecule, conductance histogram shows peaks at integer multiples of a fundamental conductance value, which is used to identify the conductance of a single molecule. The conductance values of a benzenedithiol and benzenedimethanethiol are 0.011 G(0) and 0.0006 G(0) (G(0) = 2e(2)/h), respectively. The conductance peaks are broad, which reflects variations in the microscopic details of different molecular junctions. We have also studied electrochemical gate effect.