Electrical Transport through a Single Molecule of [Ru(tpy)2](PF6)2

  • Dr Mario Ruben, Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Dr Aitor Landa, Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Dr Emanuel Lörtscher, IBM Zürich Research Laboratory, Rüschlikon, Switzerland
  • Dr Heike Riel, IBM Zürich Research Laboratory, Rüschlikon, Switzerland
  • Dr Helmar Görls, Institut für Anorganische und Allgemeine Chemie, Universität Jena, Germany
  • Prof Heiko Weber, Institute für Angewandte Physik, Universität Erlangen, Germany
  • Dr Andreas Arnold, Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT Karlsruhe, Germany
  • Dr Ferdinand Evers, Institute of Nanotechnology, KIT Karlsruhe, Germany

    • The electronic transport through a single Ruthenium(II) atom hold by two terpyridine ligands in the [RuII(L)2](PF6)2molecule (1) was investigated experimentally as well as by ab intitio methods. In order to achieve electronic contact, the Ruthenium(II)-bis-(terpyridyl) core was equipped synthetically with rigid, conjugated linkers of para-acetyl-mercapto phenylacetylene. The structure of the molecular wire (1) was determined by single crystal X-ray crystallography (Figure 1A) and found to be in high agreement with structure calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT). The current-voltage curve (I-V) of (1) was studied experimentally in a metal-molecule-metal junction using the mechanically controlled break-junction technique (Figure 1B). The results demonstrates that reproducible IV's can be obtained for molecules of the [MII(L)2]-type in breakjunction measurements. Quantum transport calculations for these big systems confirm the single-molecule character of the I/V experiment. Studies concerning influence of light irradiation on the electrical transport properties are under investigation.