DECOSMOL Design and Control of Single Molecule Junctions

Funding :

EIG Concert Japan / MINECO (Spanish contribution) PCI2023-143389

Duration:

Single molecule junctions, where individual organic molecules are placed between two nano-electrodes, are ideal platforms to create molecular-scale functional materials with the desired electronic properties. The flow of an electrical current across the junction depends on the molecular chemical properties and on the atomistic details of the contacts to the electrodes, which are thus essential to characterize. This project will design and characterize single molecule circuits with tailored mechanical, conducting and thermoelectric properties. To achieve this, we will combine chemical synthesis, atomistic simulations, and a series of experimental measurements including electron transport break-junction methods and optical spectroscopies on the basis of an STM (scanning tunnelling microscope). To better describe the conditions of any potential technological applications in nanoelectronics, we

will study these materials at room temperature.

We expect the project to deepen our understanding into the fundamental mechanisms governing current flow, to generate insight into the atomic-scale structure at the organic-molecule/metal interface, and to develop experimental techniques to manipulate the junctions and tune their conducting properties. These findings will chart new pathways for delivering molecular junctions with tailored properties.

This project joins the expertise of synthetic chemists as well as experimental and theoretical physicists. It is coordinated by Héctor Vázquez, at the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic) and includes M. Teresa González, at Fundación IMDEA Nanociencia (Spain), J. Manuel Cuerva, at Granada University (Spain) and Shintaro Fujii, at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan) as team leaders.