Low-temperature Conductance Measurements On Single Molecules

TL;DR

This paper presents a low-temperature conductance measurement protocol for single organic molecules, improving data quality and stability compared to room temperature methods, facilitating better experimental and theoretical comparisons.

Contribution

It introduces a low-temperature conductance spectroscopy method for single molecules, enhancing data stability and quality over existing room temperature techniques.

Findings

Higher stability and narrower linewidth at low T

Reduced noise in conductance measurements

Improved comparability with theoretical models

Abstract

An experimental protocol which allows to perform conductance spectroscopy on organic molecules at low temperatures (T~30 K) has been developed. This extends the method of mechanically controlled break junctions which has recently demonstrated to be suitable to contact single molecules at room temperature. The conductance data obtained at low T with a conjugated sample molecule show a highly improved data quality with a higher stability, narrower linewidth and substantially reduced noise. Thus the comparability of experimental data with other measurements as well as with theoretical simulations is considerably improved.