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Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 045502 (2005) [4 pages]

Single C59N Molecule as a Molecular Rectifier

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Jin Zhao, Changgan Zeng, Xin Cheng, Kedong Wang, Guanwu Wang, Jinlong Yang *, J. G. Hou †, and Qingshi Zhu
Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230036 People’s Republic of China

Received 24 March 2004; revised 19 May 2005; published 20 July 2005

We report a new kind of experimental realization of a molecular rectifier, which is based on a single azafullerene C59N molecule in a double-barrier tunnel junction via the single electron tunneling effect. An obvious rectifying effect is observed. The positive onset voltage is about 0.5–0.7 V, while the negative onset voltage is about 1.6–1.8 V. Theoretical analyses show that the half-occupied molecular orbital of the C59N molecule and the asymmetric shift of the molecular Fermi level when the molecule is charged are responsible for the molecular rectification.


©2005 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.045502
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.045502
PACS: 61.48.+c, 68.37.Ef, 73.23.Hk, 73.63.Rt

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic address: jlyang@ustc.edu.cn
† Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic address: jghou@ustc.edu.cn

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