Plasmon-Induced Conductance Enhancement in Single-Molecule
Junctions
Author(s):
Michal Vadai, Nirit Nachman, Matan Ben-Zion, Marius Bü
rkle, Fabian Pauly, Juan Carlos Cuevas, Yoram Selzer
Journal:
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Year:
2013
Volume:
4
Pages
2811–2816
DOI:
10.1021/jz4014008
Abstract:
The effect of surface plasmons on the conductance of singlemolecule junctions is studied using a squeezable break junction setup. We show
that the conductance of 2,7-diaminofluorene single-molecule junctions can be
enhanced upon laser irradiation. Our experimental approach enables us to show
that this enhancement is due to the plasmon-induced oscillating field within the
nanoscale metal gap of the junctions. The effective plasmon field enhancement
within the gap is calculated to be ∼1000. The experimental procedure presented
in this work, which enables one to explore the coupling between plasmons and
molecular excitations via transport measurements, could potentially become a
valuable tool in the field of plexcitonics.