Many-body theory of electronic transport in single-molecule heterojunctions

A many-body theory of molecular junction transport based on nonequilibrium Green's functions is developed, which treats coherent quantum effects and Coulomb interactions on an equal footing. The central quantity of the many-body theory is the Coulomb self-energy matrix $\Sigma_{\rm C}$ of the junction. $\Sigma_{\rm C}$ is evaluated exactly in the sequential tunneling limit, and the correction due to finite tunneling width is evaluated self-consistently using a conserving approximation based on diagrammatic perturbation theory on the Keldysh contour. Our approach reproduces the key features of both the Coulomb blockade and coherent transport regimes simultaneously in a single unified transport theory. As a first application of our theory, we have calculated the thermoelectric power and differential conductance spectrum of a benzenedithiol-gold junction using a semi-empirical $\pi$-electron Hamiltonian that accurately describes the full spectrum of electronic excitations of the molecule up to 8--10eV.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Coherent Destruction of Coulomb Blockade Peaks in Molecular Junctions

Coherent electronic transport in single-molecule junctions is investigated in the Coulomb blockade regime. Both the transmission phase and probability are calculated for junctions with various contact symmetries. A dramatic suppression of the Coulomb blockade peaks is predicted for junctions where multiple atomic orbitals of the molecule couple to a single electrode although the charging steps are unaffected.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

The number of transmission channels through a single-molecule junction

We calculate transmission eigenvalue distributions for Pt-benzene-Pt and Pt-butadiene-Pt junctions using realistic state-of-the-art many-body techniques. An effective field theory of interacting $\pi$-electrons is used to include screening and van der Waals interactions with the metal electrodes. We find that the number of dominant transmission channels in a molecular junction is equal to the degeneracy of the molecular orbital closest to the metal Fermi level.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Accuracy of density functionals for molecular electronics: the Anderson junction

The exact ground-state exchange-correlation functional of Kohn-Sham density functional theory yields the exact transmission through an Anderson junction at zero bias and temperature. The exact impurity charge susceptibility is used to construct the exact exchange-correlation potential. We analyze the successes and limitations of various types of approximations, including smooth and discontinuous functionals of the occupation, as well as symmetry-broken approaches.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Many-body theory of electronic transport in single-molecule heterojunctions

A many-body theory of molecular junction transport based on nonequilibrium Green's functions is developed, which treats coherent quantum effects and Coulomb interactions on an equal footing. The central quantity of the many-body theory is the Coulomb self-energy matrix $\Sigma_{\rm C}$ of the junction. $\Sigma_{\rm C}$ is evaluated exactly in the sequential tunneling limit, and the correction due to finite tunneling width is evaluated self-consistently using a conserving approximation based on diagrammatic perturbation theory on the Keldysh contour. Our approach reproduces the key features of both the Coulomb blockade and coherent transport regimes simultaneously in a single unified transport theory. As a first application of our theory, we have calculated the thermoelectric power and differential conductance spectrum of a benzenedithiol-gold junction using a semi-empirical $\pi$-electron Hamiltonian that accurately describes the full spectrum of electronic excitations of the molecule up to 8--10eV.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Giant Thermoelectric Effect from Transmission Supernodes

We predict an enormous order-dependent quantum enhancement of thermoelectric effects in the vicinity of a higher-order `supernode' in the transmission spectrum of a nanoscale junction. Single-molecule junctions based on 3,3'-biphenyl and polyphenyl ether (PPE) are investigated in detail. The nonequilibrium thermodynamic efficiency and power output of a thermoelectric heat engine based on a 1,3-benzene junction are calculated using many-body theory, and compared to the predictions of the figure-of-merit ZT.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Effective Field Theory of Interacting \pi-Electrons

We develop a \pi-electron effective field theory (\pi-EFT) wherein the two-body Hamiltonian for a \pi-electron system is expressed in terms of three effective parameters: the \pi-orbital quadrupole moment, the on-site repulsion, and a dielectric constant. As a first application of this \pi-EFT, we develop a model of screening in molecular junctions based on image multipole moments, and use this to investigate the reduction of the HOMO-LUMO gap of benzene. Beyond this, we also use \pi-EFT to calculate the differential conductance spectrum of the prototypical benzenedithiol-Au single-molecule junction and the \pi-electron contribution to the van der Waals interaction between benzene and a metallic electrode.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figure

Effect of Thermoelectric Cooling in Nanoscale Junctions

We propose a thermoelectric cooling device based on an atomic-sized junction. Using first-principles approaches, we investigate the working conditions and the coefficient of performance (COP) of an atomic-scale electronic refrigerator where the effects of phonon's thermal current and local heating are included. It is observed that the functioning of the thermoelectric nano-refrigerator is restricted to a narrow range of driving voltages. Compared with the bulk thermoelectric system with the overwhelmingly irreversible Joule heating, the 4-Al atomic refrigerator has a higher efficiency than a bulk thermoelectric refrigerator with the same $ZT$ due to suppressed local heating via the quasi-ballistic electron transport and small driving voltages. Quantum nature due to the size minimization offered by atomic-level control of properties facilitates electron cooling beyond the expectation of the conventional thermoelectric device theory.Comment: 8 figure

A Molecular Platinum Cluster Junction: A Single-Molecule Switch

We present a theoretical study of the electronic transport through single-molecule junctions incorporating a Pt6 metal cluster bound within an organic framework. We show that the insertion of this molecule between a pair of electrodes leads to a fully atomically engineered nano-metallic device with high conductance at the Fermi level and two sequential high on/off switching states. The origin of this property can be traced back to the existence of a HOMO which consists of two degenerate and asymmetric orbitals, lying close in energy to the Fermi level of the metallic leads. Their degeneracy is broken when the molecule is contacted to the leads, giving rise to two resonances which become pinned close to the Fermi level and display destructive interference.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2013, 135 (6), 2052. Copyright 2013 American Chemical Societ