Electrochemical setup - a unique chance to simultaneously control orbital energies and vibrational properties of single-molecule junctions with unprecedented efficiency

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that electrochemical control allows for highly efficient and broad tuning of both vibrational and electronic properties of single-molecule junctions, surpassing traditional two-terminal methods.

Contribution

It introduces a method to continuously tune molecular charge and vibrational properties in single-molecule junctions using electrochemical control, enabling unprecedented precision.

Findings

Electrochemical control can drive molecules between oxidized and reduced states.

Broad tuning of vibrational frequencies and SERS intensities is achieved.

Electrochemical approach outperforms two-terminal setups in tuning range.

Abstract

Impressive advances in nanoscience permit nowadays to manipulate single molecules and broadly control many of their properties. Still, tuning the molecular charge and vibrational properties of single molecules embedded in nanojunctions in broad ranges escaped so far to an efficient control. By combining theoretical results with recent experimental data, we show that, under electrochemical control, it is possible to continuously drive a redox molecule (viologen) between almost perfect oxidized and reduced states. This yields an unprecedentedly efficient control on both vibrational frequencies and the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) intensities. The broad tuning achieved under electrochemical control by varying the overpotential ("gate potential") within experimentally accessible ranges contrasts to the case of two-terminal setups that require high biases, which real nanojunctions cannot withstand. The present study aim at stimulating concurrent transport and SERS measurements in electrochemical setup. This may open a new avenue of research that is not accessible via two-terminal approaches for better understanding the transport at nanoscale.