Measurement of Current-Induced Local Heating in a Single Molecule Junction

We have studied the current-induced local heating effects in single molecules covalently bound to two electrodes by measuring the force required to break the molecule−electrode bonds under various conditions. The breakdown process is thermally activated, which is used to extract the effective temperature of the molecular junction as a function of applied bias voltage. We have also performed first-principles calculations of both local heating and current-induced force effects, and the results are in good agreement with the experimental findings.