Manipulating transport through a single-molecule junction

Molecular Electronics deals with the realization of elementary electronic devices that rely on a single molecule. For electronic applications, the most important property of a single molecule is its conductance. Here we show how the conductance of a single octanethiol molecule can be measured and manipulated by varying the contact's interspace. This mechanical gating of the single molecule junction leads to a variation of the conductance that can be understood in terms of a tunable image charge effect. The image charge effect increases with a decrease of the contact's interspace due to a reduction of the effective potential barrier height of 1.5 meV/pm. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.