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Electromechanics at the nanoscale

By 28 de February de 2011November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 28.02.2011

Electromechanics at the nanoscale

In a study published in Nature Nanotechnology, Ismael Díez Pérez, a researcher in IBEC's Nanoprobes and Nanoswitches group –located at Barcelona Scientific Park– and Prof. Nongjian Tao from Arizona State University describe their success in attempting to find a way to simulate the same electromechanical effects achieved on conventional electronics but in a single-molecule device that allows the accurate mechanical control of the current flow.

By studying metal-molecule orbitals coupling, in which a flow of electrons is modulated by the overlapping level of the molecular ‘π-orbitals’ and the orbitals of the electrodes binding to it, they found a new way to control the electrical conductance in a single-molecule junction. “We mechanically modulated the angle of a molecule bridged between two metal electrodes,” explains Ismael. “Changing its angle from highly-tilted to nearly perpendicular to the electrodes changes the conductance by an order of magnitude.” Single-molecule electromechanical devices would open up huge possibilities in being able to create things at an ever-smaller scale.