Near-perfect conduction through a ferrocene-based molecular wire

TL;DR

This paper reports the design and measurement of a ferrocene-based molecular wire with near-perfect conductance, demonstrating the importance of molecular resonance and orbital networks in achieving high single-molecule conductance.

Contribution

It introduces a novel ferrocene-based molecular wire with unprecedented conductance levels and provides theoretical and experimental insights into its transport properties.

Findings

Conductance exceeds 70% of G_0

Lorentzian bias-dependent conductance profile

Comparison shows higher conductance than organic analogs

Abstract

Here we describe the design, single-molecule transport measurements, and theoretical modeling of a ferrocene-based organometallic molecular wire, whose bias-dependent conductance shows a clear Lorentzian form with magnitude exceeding 70% of the conductance quantum G_0. We attribute this unprecedented level of single-molecule conductance to a manifestation of the low-lying molecular resonance and extended orbital network long-predicted for a conjugated organic system. A similar-in-length, all-organic conjugated phenylethynyl oligomer molecular framework shows much lower conductance.