Optical probes of molecules as nano-mechanical switches

Dean Kos; Giuliana Di Martino; Alexandra Boehmke; Bart de Nijs; Dénes Berta; Tamás Földes; Sara Sangtarash; Edina Rosta; Hatef Sadeghi; Jeremy J. Baumberg

doi:10.1038/s41467-020-19703-y

Optical probes of molecules as nano-mechanical switches

Dean Kos, Giuliana Di Martino^*, Alexandra Boehmke, Bart de Nijs, Dénes Berta, Tamás Földes, Sara Sangtarash, Edina Rosta, Hatef Sadeghi, Jeremy J. Baumberg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

23 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Molecular electronics promises a new generation of ultralow-energy information technologies, based around functional molecular junctions. Here, we report optical probing that exploits a gold nanoparticle in a plasmonic nanocavity geometry used as one terminal of a well-defined molecular junction, deposited as a self-assembled molecular monolayer on flat gold. A conductive transparent cantilever electrically contacts individual nanoparticles while maintaining optical access to the molecular junction. Optical readout of molecular structure in the junction reveals ultralow-energy switching of ∼50 zJ, from a nano-electromechanical torsion spring at the single molecule level. Real-time Raman measurements show these electronic device characteristics are directly affected by this molecular torsion, which can be explained using a simple circuit model based on junction capacitances, confirmed by density functional theory calculations. This nanomechanical degree of freedom is normally invisible and ignored in electrical transport measurements but is vital to the design and exploitation of molecules as quantum-coherent electronic nanodevices.

Original language	English
Article number	5905
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	11
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19703-y
Publication status	Published - Dec 2020

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AU - Di Martino, Giuliana

AU - Boehmke, Alexandra

AU - de Nijs, Bart

AU - Berta, Dénes

AU - Földes, Tamás

AU - Sangtarash, Sara

AU - Rosta, Edina

AU - Sadeghi, Hatef

AU - Baumberg, Jeremy J.

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AB - Molecular electronics promises a new generation of ultralow-energy information technologies, based around functional molecular junctions. Here, we report optical probing that exploits a gold nanoparticle in a plasmonic nanocavity geometry used as one terminal of a well-defined molecular junction, deposited as a self-assembled molecular monolayer on flat gold. A conductive transparent cantilever electrically contacts individual nanoparticles while maintaining optical access to the molecular junction. Optical readout of molecular structure in the junction reveals ultralow-energy switching of ∼50 zJ, from a nano-electromechanical torsion spring at the single molecule level. Real-time Raman measurements show these electronic device characteristics are directly affected by this molecular torsion, which can be explained using a simple circuit model based on junction capacitances, confirmed by density functional theory calculations. This nanomechanical degree of freedom is normally invisible and ignored in electrical transport measurements but is vital to the design and exploitation of molecules as quantum-coherent electronic nanodevices.

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Optical probes of molecules as nano-mechanical switches

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