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Updated: Mar 9, 2026

All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics
Published on: January 19, 2018
Evaluation of the Electronic Structure of Single-Molecule Junctions Based on Current-Voltage and Thermopower
Yuki Komoto1, Yuji Isshiki1, Shintaro Fujii1
1Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 W4-10 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, 152-8551, Japan.
Abstract:
The electronic structure of molecular junctions has a significant impact on their transport properties. Despite the decisive role of the electronic structure, a complete characterization of the electronic structure remains a challenge. This is because there is no straightforward way of measuring electron spectroscopy for an individual molecule trapped in a nanoscale gap between two metal electrodes. Herein, a comprehensive approach to obtain a detailed description of the electronic structure in single-molecule junctions based on the analysis of current-voltage (I-V) and thermoelectric characteristics is described. It is shown that the electronic structure of the prototypical C60 single-molecule junction can be resolved by analyzing complementary results of the I-V and thermoelectric measurement. This combined approach confirmed that the C60 single-molecule junction was highly conductive with molecular electronic conductances of 0.033 and 0.003 G0 and a molecular Seebeck coefficient of -12 μV K-1 . In addition, we revealed that charge transport was mediated by a LUMO whose energy level was located 0.5≈0.6 eV above the Fermi level of the Au electrode.
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