Statistical representation of intrinsic electronic tunneling characteristics through alkyl self-assembled monolayers in nanowell device structures

Song, Hyunwook; Lee, Takhee; Choi, Nak-Jin; Lee, Hyoyoung

doi:doi:10.1116/1.2905237

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Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B / Volume 26 / Issue 3 / Regular Articles

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J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 26, 904 (2008); http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.2905237 (5 pages)

Statistical representation of intrinsic electronic tunneling characteristics through alkyl self-assembled monolayers in nanowell device structures

Hyunwook Song¹, Takhee Lee¹, Nak-Jin Choi², and Hyoyoung Lee²

¹Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Gwangju 500-712, Korea
²National Creative Research Initiative, Center for Smart Molecular Memory, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute, Daejeon 305-350, Korea

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(Published online 22 April 2008)

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Systematic electronic transport measurements in nanometer-scale junctions containing self-assembled monolayers of alkyl molecules are reported using nanowell device structures. The comprehensive temperature-variable current-voltage characterizations and statistical analysis for the acquired transport data show that direct tunneling indeed can be assigned as the dominant charge transport mechanism of the alkyl monolayers in a voltage range ⩽ ±1 V. The intrinsic tunneling characteristics of alkyl molecular junctions are examined by excluding other parasitic conduction mechanisms by the data analyses and statistically defining representative data. The demonstrated intrinsic tunneling characteristics are well consistent with numerous previous reports for alkyl-based monolayers. The current characteristics are temperature independent and exponentially depend on the molecular length. The tunneling decay coefficient is determined as 0.83–0.73 Å⁻¹ in the bias range from 0.1 to 1.0 V and is independent of temperature. The statistical histogram of current densities for all direct tunneling devices exhibits log-normal distribution, which is likely due to a variation in tunneling distance.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was supported by the National Research Laboratory (NRL) Program and the Basic Research Program of the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation, and the Program for Integrated Molecular System at GIST. H.L. acknowledges the support of Creative Research Initiatives (Smart Molecular Memory) of MOST/KOSEF, Korea.

Article Outline

INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENT
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Electronic transport mechanism of alkanethiols
2. Statistical representation of intrinsic tunneling characteristics through alkanethiols
3. Statistical distribution of current density
CONCLUSION

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

current density, molecular electronics, monolayers, nanoelectronics, organic compounds, self-assembly, statistical analysis, tunnelling, Octanethiol, Dodecanethiol, Hexadecanethiol

PACS

85.65.+h

Molecular electronic devices

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History

Received 28 December 2007
Accepted 11 March 2008
Published online 22 April 2008

Digital Object Identifier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1116/1.2905237

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1071-1023 (print)

1520-8567 (online)

Publisher

American Vacuum Society

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