Exploring Aromaticity Effects on Electronic Transport in Cyclo[n]carbon Single-Molecule Junctions

Author:

Yang Peiqi1ORCID,Pan Haoyang12,Wang Yudi1ORCID,Li Jie1ORCID,Dong Yangyu13,Wang Yongfeng1,Hou Shimin13

Affiliation:

1. Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, School of Electronics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

2. Institute of Spin Science and Technology, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 511442, China

3. Centre for Nanoscale Science and Technology, Academy for Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China

Abstract

Cyclo[n]carbon (Cn) is one member of the all-carbon allotrope family with potential applications in next-generation electronic devices. By employing first-principles quantum transport calculations, we have investigated the electronic transport properties of single-molecule junctions of Cn, with n = 14, 16, 18, and 20, connected to two bulk gold electrodes, uncovering notable distinctions arising from the varying aromaticities. For the doubly aromatic C14 and C18 molecules, slightly deformed complexes at the singlet state arise after bonding with one Au atom at each side; in contrast, the reduced energy gaps between the highest occupied and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals due to the orbital reordering observed in the doubly anti-aromatic C16 and C20 molecules lead to heavily deformed asymmetric complexes at the triplet state. Consequently, spin-unpolarized transmission functions are obtained for the Au-C14/18-Au junctions, while spin-polarized transmission appears in the Au-C16/20-Au junctions. Furthermore, the asymmetric in-plane π-type hybrid molecular orbitals of the Au-C16/20-Au junctions contribute to two broad but low transmission peaks far away from the Fermi level (Ef), while the out-of-plane π-type hybrid molecular orbitals dominate two sharp transmission peaks that are adjacent to Ef, thus resulting in much lower transmission coefficients at Ef compared to those of the Au-C14/18-Au junctions. Our findings are helpful for the design and application of future cyclo[n]carbon-based molecular electronic devices.

Funder

National Natural Science Foundation of China

Publisher

MDPI AG

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