Electron transport in polycyclic hydrocarbon molecules: A study of shot noise contribution to the power spectrum

TL;DR

This paper investigates electron transport and shot noise in polycyclic hydrocarbon molecules connected to metallic electrodes, highlighting how molecular length, interface geometry, and coupling strength influence transport properties.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed Green's function approach combined with tight-binding calculations to analyze shot noise contributions in molecular electron transport.

Findings

Transport properties depend on molecular length and interface geometry.

Shot noise significantly affects the power spectrum of current fluctuations.

Molecular coupling strength alters electron transport behavior.

Abstract

We study electron transport in polycyclic hydrocarbon molecules attached to two semi-infinite one-dimensional metallic electrodes by the use of Green's function formalism. Parametric calculations based on the tight-binding framework are given to investigate the transport properties through such molecular bridges. In this context we also discuss noise power of current fluctuations and focus our attention on the shot noise contribution to the power spectrum. The electron transport properties are significantly influenced by (a) length of the molecule, (b) molecule-electrode interface geometry and (c) molecular coupling strength to the electrodes.