Condensed Matter Physics Seminar

2 p.m., Thursday, December 9, 2004
Room 1201, Physics Building

 Single molecule transistors: Transport, Kondo physics and inelastic processes

Doug Natelson

(Rice University)

Abstract:  It is now possible to fabricate a transistor with a channel consisting of a single, small, organic molecule. These devices act as single-electron transistors, though with single-particle level spacings and charging energies far larger than conventional SETs. Clever chemical synthesis allows systematic studies of molecules with internal degrees of freedom (e.g. varying numbers of unpaired electron spins). These systems are excellent tools for studying certain physics and physical chemistry problems. I shall describe our recent successes in this area, including an extensive discussion of fabrication statistics and control experiments. I will also show that inelastic processes in such devices allow a new form of inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy. Such observations confirm the molecular nature of transport through these devices while showing nontrivial couplings between electronic and vibrational excitations in these systems.
Host:  Fuhrer
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