# Interplay of Electron-Electron and Electron-Phonon Interactions in Molecular Junctions

## TL;DR

This paper models a molecular junction considering both electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions, revealing conditions under which negative differential conductance occurs due to their interplay.

## Contribution

It introduces a master equation approach to analyze the combined effects of electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions in molecular junctions, highlighting regimes of negative differential conductance.

## Key findings

- Negative differential conductance observed in certain regimes
- Interplay between electron-phonon and Coulomb interactions affects current-voltage characteristics
- Master equation approach effectively captures the system's steady-state behavior

## Abstract

In this work we consider a current carrying molecular junction with both electron-phonon and electron-electron interactions taken into account. After performing Lang-Firsov transformation and considering Markov approximations in accordance to weak coupling to the electronic leads, we obtain the master equation governing the time evolution of the reduced density matrix of the junction. The steady state of the density matrix can be used to obtain I-V characteristic of the junction in several regimes of strengths of the interactions. Our results indicate that the system can show negative differential conductance (that is, the current decreases by increasing the applied bias voltage) in some regimes as an interplay between the electron-phonon and Coulomb interactions.