Addition energies and vibrational fine structure measured in electromigrated single-molecule junctions based on an oligophenylenevinylene derivative

Transport trough electromigrated molecular junctions that contain an individual thiol end-capped oligophenylenevinylene molecule has been studied. At low temperatures more than fifteen excitations appear in the differential conductance map (see figure). Their energies agree with energies obtained from optical measurements on the same molecule, and are therefore attributed to vibrational modes. Addition energies are consistently an order of magnitude smaller than the optical HOMO-LUMO gap.