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Dynamics or Stochastic Conductance Switching of Phenylene–Ethynylene Oligomers?
Author(s) -
Hallbäck AnnSofie,
Poelsema Bene,
Zandvliet Harold J. W.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.200600744
Subject(s) - conductance , monolayer , molecule , phenylene , scanning tunneling microscope , chemical physics , self assembly , quantum tunnelling , materials science , chemistry , crystallography , nanotechnology , molecular physics , polymer , condensed matter physics , optoelectronics , physics , organic chemistry , composite material
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of phenylene–ethynylene oligomers inserted in alkanethiolate self assembled monolayers (SAMs) are presented. Spontaneous changes in appearance of bundles of inserted molecules during imaging are observed. The results indicate that the appearance changes are caused by fluctuations of the number of molecules in the bundles, by diffusion and exchange of molecules, in contrast to previous reports which attribute the changes to stochastic conductance switching. The packing density of the SAM around the bundles of inserted molecules influence the fluctuations, as the fluctuations observed at 77 K all take place in bundles inserted at locally less‐densely packed SAM areas. At room temperature fluctuations of bundles inserted in well‐ordered areas are also observed.