Expositora: 

Diana Dulić

Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology,

The Netherlands

Martes 10 de julio, 14:30 h

Av. Blanco Encalada 2008, 3er piso

Sala de Seminarios

***NOTAR CAMBIO DE FECHA***

Abstract:

Building an electronic device using individual molecules is one of the ultimate goals in nanotechnology. To achieve this it will be necessary to measure, control and understand electron transport through molecules attached to electrodes.

Although some devices have already been realized, a number of fundamental questions, such as: “What is the nature of transport through these systems, and how can we employ and tune their electrical properties for new electronic devices?” have not been answered yet. A central problem, common for all of them is: “How to reliably connect a nano-object to the macroscopic world?” The conductance of a molecule depends not only on its intrinsic properties, but is very

sensitive to the atomic level details of the molecule-electrode contact and the local environment of the molecule.

I will show several examples of influence of metal-molecule contacts obtained with mechanically controllable break junctions (MCBJ) method which is a reliable technique for obtaining a single molecule junction. For instance, of how an intrinsically light switchable molecule may lose its functionality after it is contacted to the electrodes and how it can regain the functionality by adjusting the molecular structure. I will present an overview in the development of the MCBJ technique in the past ten years and some recent advances, such as mechanically tuning of the electronic transport in a porphyrin molecule.