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Measurement of current-induced local heating in a single molecule junction
Zhifeng Huang1, Bingqian Xu, Yuchang Chen
1Department of Electrical Engineering & The Center for Solid State Electronics Research, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA.
Abstract:
We have studied the current-induced local heating effects in single molecules covalently bound to two electrodes by measuring the force required to break the molecule-electrode bonds under various conditions. The breakdown process is thermally activated, which is used to extract the effective temperature of the molecular junction as a function of applied bias voltage. We have also performed first-principles calculations of both local heating and current-induced force effects, and the results are in good agreement with the experimental findings.
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