1,055 research outputs found
Orbital Interaction Mechanisms of Conductance Enhancement and Rectification by Dithiocarboxylate Anchoring Group
We study computationally the electron transport properties of
dithiocarboxylate terminated molecular junctions. Transport properties are
computed self-consistently within density functional theory and nonequilibrium
Green's functions formalism. A microscopic origin of the experimentally
observed current amplification by dithiocarboxylate anchoring groups is
established. For the 4,4'-biphenyl bis(dithiocarboxylate) junction, we find
that the interaction of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the
dithiocarboxylate anchoring group with LUMO and highest occupied molecular
orbital (HOMO) of the biphenyl part results in bonding and antibonding
resonances in the transmission spectrum in the vicinity of the electrode Fermi
energy. A new microscopic mechanism of rectification is predicted based on the
electronic structure of asymmetrical anchoring groups. We show that the peaks
in the transmission spectra of 4'-thiolato-biphenyl-4-dithiocarboxylate
junction respond differently to the applied voltage. Depending upon the origin
of a transmission resonance in the orbital interaction picture, its energy can
be shifted along with the chemical potential of the electrode to which the
molecule is more strongly or more weakly coupled
Molecular Wires Acting as Coherent Quantum Ratchets
The effect of laser fields on the electron transport through a molecular wire
being weakly coupled to two leads is investigated. The molecular wire acts as a
coherent quantum ratchet if the molecule is composed of periodically arranged,
asymmetric chemical groups. This setup presents a quantum rectifier with a
finite dc-response in the absence of a static bias. The nonlinear current is
evaluated in closed form within the Floquet basis of the isolated, driven wire.
The current response reveals multiple current reversals together with a
nonlinear dependence (reflecting avoided quasi-energy crossings) on both, the
amplitude and the frequency of the laser field. The current saturates for long
wires at a nonzero value, while it may change sign upon decreasing its length.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, RevTeX
Driving current through single organic molecules
We investigate electronic transport through two types of conjugated
molecules. Mechanically controlled break-junctions are used to couple thiol
endgroups of single molecules to two gold electrodes. Current-voltage
characteristics (IVs) of the metal-molecule-metal system are observed. These
IVs reproduce the spatial symmetry of the molecules with respect to the
direction of current flow. We hereby unambigously detect an intrinsic property
of the molecule, and are able to distinguish the influence of both the molecule
and the contact to the metal electrodes on the transport properties of the
compound system.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Bi-stable tunneling current through a molecular quantum dot
An exact solution is presented for tunneling through a negative-U d-fold
degenerate molecular quantum dot weakly coupled to electrical leads. The tunnel
current exhibits hysteresis if the level degeneracy of the negative-U dot is
larger than two (d>2). Switching occurs in the voltage range V1 < V < V2 as a
result of attractive electron correlations in the molecule, which open up a new
conducting channel when the voltage is above the threshold bias voltage V2.
Once this current has been established, the extra channel remains open as the
voltage is reduced down to the lower threshold voltage V1. Possible
realizations of the bi-stable molecular quantum dots are fullerenes, especially
C60, and mixed-valence compounds.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure. (v2) Figure updated to compare the current
hysteresis for degeneracies d=4 and d>>1 of the level in the dot, minor
corrections in the text. To appear in Phys. Rev.
Rate-equation calculations of the current flow through two-site molecular device and DNA-based junction
Here we present the calculations of incoherent current flowing through the
two-site molecular device as well as the DNA-based junction within the
rate-equation approach. Few interesting phenomena are discussed in detail.
Structural asymmetry of two-site molecule results in rectification effect,
which can be neutralized by asymmetric voltage drop at the molecule-metal
contacts due to coupling asymmetry. The results received for poly(dG)-poly(dC)
DNA molecule reveal the coupling- and temperature-independent saturation effect
of the current at high voltages, where for short chains we establish the
inverse square distance dependence. Besides, we document the shift of the
conductance peak in the direction to higher voltages due to the temperature
decrease.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figure
Ab-initio study of model guanine assemblies: The role of pi-pi coupling and band transport
Several assemblies of guanine molecules are investigated by means of
first-principle calculations. Such structures include stacked and
hydrogen-bonded dimers, as well as vertical columns and planar ribbons,
respectively, obtained by periodically replicating the dimers. Our results are
in good agreement with experimental data for isolated molecules, isolated
dimers, and periodic ribbons. For stacked dimers and columns, the stability is
affected by the relative charge distribution of the pi orbitals in adjacent
guanine molecules. pi-pi coupling in some stacked columns induces dispersive
energy bands, while no dispersion is identified in the planar ribbons along the
connections of hydrogen bonds. The implications for different materials
comprised of guanine aggregates are discussed. The bandstructure of dispersive
configurations may justify a contribution of band transport (Bloch type) in the
conduction mechanism of deoxyguanosine fibres, while in DNA-like configurations
band transport should be negligible.Comment: 21 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, to be published in Phys. Rev.
The self in prejudice
Abstract: The self as a psychological construct, and the self in relation to the other has been discussed in psychological and sociological literature for decades, but not much attention has been given to the psychological development of the self in relation to the social construction of prejudice. The primary aim of this article is to explore the self in prejudice and thus the psychological processes involved in the development of self within the social context. Consequently, the aim is to explore the self in the construction and expression of prejudice from both a social and psychological approach, and to explain selfhood influences at the individual, group and community levels. I use the conceptual framework of Kohut’s self psychology as a lens to present the development of the self and thus the idea of the development of the self in relation to the other. In such exploration of self in prejudice, I present some of my ideas which include prejudice as an outcome of self-definition in the context of the other, as well as linking self in prejudice and group dynamics to attachment theory and the notion of “selfgroup’ in terms of overidentification with the in-group. While the social and the psychological in terms of the development of the self cannot be separated, I have therefore attempted to merge at some point the two bodies of thought in relation to the self in prejudice
Helical trilayer graphene: a moir\'e platform for strongly-interacting topological bands
Quantum geometry of electronic wavefunctions results in fascinating
topological phenomena. A prominent example is the intrinsic anomalous Hall
effect (AHE) in which a Hall voltage arises in the absence of an applied
magnetic field. The AHE requires a coexistence of Berry curvature and
spontaneous time-reversal symmetry breaking. These conditions can be realized
in two-dimensional moir\'e systems with broken -inversion symmetry
() that host flat electronic bands. Here, we explore helical trilayer
graphene (HTG), three graphene layers twisted sequentially by the same angle
forming two misoriented moir\'e patterns. Although HTG is globally
-symmetric, surprisingly we observe clear signatures of topological
bands. At a magic angle , we uncover a
robust phase diagram of correlated and magnetic states using magnetotransport
measurements. Lattice relaxation leads to large periodic domains in which
is broken on the moir\'e scale. Each domain harbors flat topological
bands with valley-contrasting Chern numbers . We find correlated
states at integer electron fillings per moir\'e unit cell and
fractional fillings with the AHE arising at and .
At , a time-reversal symmetric phase appears beyond a critical electric
displacement field, indicating a topological phase transition. Finally,
hysteresis upon sweeping points to first-order phase transitions across a
spatial mosaic of Chern domains separated by a network of topological gapless
edge states. We establish HTG as an important platform that realizes ideal
conditions for exploring strongly interacting topological phases and, due to
its emergent moir\'e-scale symmetries, demonstrates a novel way to engineer
topology
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 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
Coherent electron-phonon coupling and polaron-like transport in molecular wires
We present a technique to calculate the transport properties through
one-dimensional models of molecular wires. The calculations include inelastic
electron scattering due to electron-lattice interaction. The coupling between
the electron and the lattice is crucial to determine the transport properties
in one-dimensional systems subject to Peierls transition since it drives the
transition itself. The electron-phonon coupling is treated as a quantum
coherent process, in the sense that no random dephasing due to electron-phonon
interactions is introduced in the scattering wave functions. We show that
charge carrier injection, even in the tunneling regime, induces lattice
distortions localized around the tunneling electron. The transport in the
molecular wire is due to polaron-like propagation. We show typical examples of
the lattice distortions induced by charge injection into the wire. In the
tunneling regime, the electron transmission is strongly enhanced in comparison
with the case of elastic scattering through the undistorted molecular wire. We
also show that although lattice fluctuations modify the electron transmission
through the wire, the modifications are qualitatively different from those
obtained by the quantum electron-phonon inelastic scattering technique. Our
results should hold in principle for other one-dimensional atomic-scale wires
subject to Peierls transitions.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (to
appear march 2001
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