EFFECT OF TORSION ANGLE ON THE RECTIFYING PERFORMANCE IN THE DONOR-BRIDGE-ACCEPTOR SINGLE MOLECULAR DEVICE

Abstract

By applying nonequilibrium Green's function formalism combined with first-principles density functional theory, we investigate the effect of torsion angle on the rectifying performance in the donor-bridge-acceptor single molecular device. The influence of HOMO–LUMO gaps and the spatial distributions of molecular orbitals on the electronic transport through the molecular device are discussed in detail. The theoretical results show that the torsion angle plays an important role in the rectifying behavior of such devices. By changing the torsion angle, namely changing the magnitude of the intermolecular coupling effect, a different rectifying behavior can be observed in these systems. The results can provide fundamental guidelines for the design of functional molecular devices to a certain extent.