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.
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Host: Fuhrer
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