Solvent induced current-voltage hysteresis and negative differential resistance in molecular junctions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how solvent environments influence electron transport in molecular junctions, revealing solvent-induced hysteresis and negative differential resistance controllable by dielectric properties.

Contribution

It combines the Born dielectric solvation model with nonequilibrium Green's functions to demonstrate solvent-induced multiple steady states and transport phenomena in molecular circuits.

Findings

Solvent dielectric constant affects current-voltage hysteresis.

Negative differential resistance peaks are controllable via solvent properties.

Multiple nonequilibrium steady states are induced by solvent effects.

Abstract

We consider a single molecule circuit embedded into solvent. The Born dielectric solvation model is combined with Keldysh nonequilibrium Green's functions to describe the electron transport properties of the system. Depending on the dielectric constant, the solvent induces multiple nonequilibrium steady states with corresponding hysteresis in molecular current-voltage characteristics as well as negative differential resistance. We identify the physical range of solvent and molecular parameters where the effects are present. The position of the negative differential resistance peak can be controlled by the dielectric constant of the solvent.