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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. B » Volume 70 » Issue 8
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Phys. Rev. B 70, 081404(R) (2004) [4 pages]

Local field effects in current transport through molecular electronic devices: Current density profiles and local nonequilibrium electron distributions

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Yongqiang Xue* and Mark A. Ratner
Department of Chemistry and Materials Research Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA

Received 24 February 2004; revised 3 May 2004; published 27 August 2004

We analyze nonequilibrium current transport in molecular electronic devices, using as an example devices formed by two terphenyl dithiol molecules attached to gold electrodes. We show that the spatially resolved current density profiles and local electrochemical potential drops provide valuable information regarding the local field effect on molecular transport, which depend on the internal structure of the molecules and cannot be obtained from measuring the current- and conductance-voltage characteristics alone.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevB.70.081404
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevB.70.081404
PACS:
85.65.+h, 73.63.−b, 73.40.−c

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Email address: ayxue@chem.northwestern.edu; Current and Permanent address: College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University at Albany-State University of New York, Albany, NY 12203.

 
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