Design of the Interface Structure of a Single-Molecule Junction Utilizing Spherical Endohedral Ce@C82 Metallofullerenes
This chapter discusses the fabrication of a highly conductive single-molecule junction by designing an interface structure. Using a spherical molecule is expected to facilitate a fixed, well-defined conductance value because changes in its configuration d
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Design of the Interface Structure of a Single-Molecule Junction Utilizing Spherical Endohedral Ce@C82 Metallofullerenes
This chapter discusses the fabrication of a highly conductive single-molecule junction by designing an interface structure. Using a spherical molecule is expected to facilitate a fixed, well-defined conductance value because changes in its configuration do not affect its electron transport. In this chapter, the electron transport of a single endohedral Ce@C82 metallofullerene is investigated. The endohedral Ce atom modified the electronic states of the fullerene and exhibited potential for applications in electronic devices.
5.1
Introduction
In the previous section, a highly conductive single-molecule junction with a fixed conduce value was achieved by focusing on the interaction between the metal and the molecule utilizing the direct-p-binding technique. The appropriate strength between Ag and benzene enabled forming the single-molecule junction with the most stable configuration at a low temperature. Nonetheless, fabricating singlemolecule junctions at room temperature is preferable to encourage practical applications of these junctions. However, thermal motion is induced and the configuration of the molecule changes easily at room temperature. The spherical shape of the fullerene maintains the effective coupling of the molecular orbital and the electronic states of the metal even when the fullerene molecule rotates, which enables fabricating a highly conductive single-molecule junction with a well-defined conductance value [1]. For this reason, fullerenes are one of the most promising molecules for single-molecule electronics. Continuous research on synthesizing techniques has yielded many kinds of fullerene derivatives with remarkable properties [2, 3]. In particular, a recent technique successfully fabricated advanced fullerenes that contain metal atoms or simple molecules inside the fullerene cage [3–7]. These endohedral fullerenes maintain the properties of the enclosed species as well as the original properties © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2017 S. Kaneko, Design and Control of Highly Conductive Single-Molecule Junctions, Springer Theses, DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-4412-0_5
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derived from the fullerene’s spherical p-conjugated system. Moreover, since the interaction between the enclosed species and fullerene cage modified the electronic states of the fullerene molecule, endohedral fullerenes are expected to have novel electronic properties. Recently, the electronic and magnetic properties of endohedral fullerenes have been investigated [8–13]. For example, the odd number of electrons that transfer from the enclosed metal atom to the fullerene cage leads to the paramagnetic property of La@C82 and Gd@C82 [3], and Xu et al. manipulated H2O@C60 using an external electrical field [10]. In spite of these investigations, however, the electron transport of a single endohedral fullerene remains unclear [11–13]. Theoretical calculation
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