Atomistic nature of transient and steady-state responses

We find experimentally that a system comprised of nanosized features no longer shows fixed steady characteristics as in solid-state devices, and instead, because of the chemistry of the nanostructure, the thermal motion of the atoms, and the external fields, the nanosized system shows intermittent behavior, that is, transient behavior. This transient response for nanosized systems might misguide conclusions regarding observed negative differential resistance (NDR) which is due to the collective nuclei rearrangements to more stable conformations under the presence of an applied field yielding, in many cases, resonances between conformations that can sustain during the steady-state period. This NDR yields peculiar behavior that needs to be considered to design molecular and nanoelectronic devices. In addition, the commonly sharp contrast between transient and steady responses blurs at the nanoscale. In nanosize systems, the time constants or transient response times depend on the velocity of the rearrangements of the atoms in the system or molecule.