The inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy of edge-modified graphene nanoribbon-based molecular devices

The inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy（IETS） of four edge-modified finite-size grapheme nanoribbon（GNR）-based molecular devices has been studied by using the density functional theory and Green＇s function method. The effects of atomic structures and connection types on inelastic transport properties of the junctions have been studied. The IETS is sensitive to the electrode connection types and modification types. Comparing with the pure hydrogen edge passivation systems, we conclude that the IETS for the lower energy region increases obviously when using donor–acceptor functional groups as the edge modification types of the central scattering area. When using donor–acceptor as the electrode connection groups, the intensity of IETS increases several orders of magnitude than that of the pure ones. The effects of temperature on the inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy also have been discussed. The IETS curves show significant fine structures at lower temperatures. With the increasing of temperature, peak broadening covers many fine structures of the IETS curves.The changes of IETS in the low-frequency region are caused by the introduction of the donor–acceptor groups and the population distribution of thermal particles. The effect of Fermi distribution on the tunneling current is persistent.

Uniform light emission from electrically driven plasmonic grating using multilayer tunneling barriers

Light emission by inelastic tunneling(LEIT)from a metal-insulator-metal tunnel junction is an ultrafast emission process.It is a promising platform for ultrafast transduction from electrical signal to optical signal on integrated circuits.However,existing procedures of fabricating LEIT devices usually involve both top-down and bottom-up techniques,which reduces its compatibility with the modern microfabrication streamline and limits its potential applications in industrial scale-up.Here in this work,we lift these restrictions by using a multilayer insulator grown by atomic layer deposition as the tunnel barrier.For the first time,we fabricate an LEIT device fully by microfabrication techniques and show a stable performance under ambient conditions.Uniform electroluminescence is observed over the entire active region,with the emission spectrum shaped by metallic grating plasmons.The introduction of a multilayer insulator into the LEIT can provide an additional degree of freedom for engineering the energy band landscape of the tunnel barrier.The presented scheme of preparing a stable ultrathin tunnel barrier may also find some applications in a wide range of integrated optoelectronic devices.

Reversible switching of Kondo resonance in a single-molecule junction

The control of the Kondo effect is of great interest in single-molecule junction due to its potential applications in spin based electronics.Here,we demonstrate that the Kondo effect is reversibly switched on and off in an iron phthalocyanine(FePc)single-molecule junction by using a superconducting Nb tip.In a scanning tunneling microscope-based Nb-insulator-FePc-Au junction,we achieve a reversible switching between the Kondo dip and inelastic electronic tunneling spectra by simply adjusting the tip-sample distance to tune the tunnel coupling at low temperature.Further approaching the tip leads to the picking up of the molecule to the tip apex,which transfers the geometry of the single-molecule junction into a Nb-FePc-insulator-Au type.As the molecule forms an effective magnetic impurity embedded into the superconducting ground states of the Nb tip,the out-gap Kondo dip switched to an in-gap Yu-Shiba-Rusinov state.Our results open up a new route for manipulating the Kondo effect within a single-molecule junction.