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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.

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