Electric-Field-Controllable Conductance Switching of an Overcrowded Ethylene Self-Assembled Monolayer
Author(s):
Shintaro Fujii, Masato Koike, Tomoaki Nishino, Yoshiyaki Shoji, Takanori Suzuki, Takanori Fukushima, Manabu Kiguchi
Journal:
Journal of the American Chemical Society
Year:
2019
Volume:
141
Pages
18544–18550
DOI:
10.1021/jacs.9b09233
Abstract:
Molecular isomerism has been discussed from the viewpoint of the tiniest switch and memory elements in electronics. Here, we report an overcrowded ethylene-based molecular conductance switch, which fulfills all the essential requirements for implementation into electronic devices, namely, electric-field-controllable reversible conductance change with a molecular-level spatial resolution, robust conformational bistability under ambient conditions, and ordered monolayer formation on electrode surfaces. The conformational state of this overcrowded ethylene, represented by a folded or twisted conformer, is susceptible to external environments. Nanoscopic measurements using scanning tunneling microscopy techniques, together with theoretical simulations, revealed the electronic properties of each conformer adsorbed on Au(111). While the twisted conformer prevails in the molecularly dispersed state, upon self-assembly into a monolayer, a two-dimensional network structure of the folded conformer is preferentially formed due to particular intermolecular interaction. In the monolayer state, folded-to-twisted and its reverse isomerization can be controlled by the modulation of electric fields.