Measuring single molecule conductance with break junctions

Abstract

Single-molecule conductance measurements made under potential control provide a critical link between chemical and molecular electronic data. These measurements are made possible by the STM break-junction method introduced recently, but questions remain about its reliability. Here we report the use of a logarithmic current-to-voltage converter to examine a wide range of currents in an STM break junction study of octanedithiol, clearly showing both the gold-quantum wire regime and the single molecule conductance regime. We find two sets of molecular currents that we tentatively ascribe to different bonding geometries of the molecules in the break junction.