Sangtarash, Sara and Huang, Cancan and Sadeghi, Hatef and Sorohhov, Gleb and Hauser, Jürg and Wandlowski, Thomas and Hong, Wenjing and Decurtins, Silvio and Liu, Shi-xia and Lambert, Colin J. (2015) Searching the hearts of graphene-like molecules for simplicity, sensitivity, and logic. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 137 (35): 35. pp. 11425-11431. ISSN 0002-7863
1509.00984.pdf - Accepted Version
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Abstract
If quantum interference patterns in the hearts of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons could be isolated and manipulated, then a significant step toward realizing the potential of single-molecule electronics would be achieved. Here we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that a simple, parameter-free, analytic theory of interference patterns evaluated at the mid-point of the HOMO–LUMO gap (referred to as M-functions) correctly predicts conductance ratios of molecules with pyrene, naphthalene, anthracene, anthanthrene, or azulene hearts. M-functions provide new design strategies for identifying molecules with phase-coherent logic functions and enhancing the sensitivity of molecular-scale interferometers.