2002/12/08 by Avik W. Ghosh, Ghosh, Avik W., Titash Rakshit +3
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Force Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics (cond-mat.mes-hall) #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Organic and Molecular Conductors Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.cond-mat/0212166
openalex publication_date 2002/12/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We derive a general result that can be used to evaluate and compare the transconductance of different field-effect mechanisms in molecular transistors, both electrostatic and conformational. The electrostatic component leads to the well-known thermal limit in the absence of tunneling. We show that in a standard three-terminal geometry and in the absence of strong electron-phonon coupling, the conformational component can lead to significant advantages only if the molecular dipole moment μis comparable to etox, tox being the thickness of the oxide. Surprisingly this conclusion is independent of the ``softness'' of the conformational modes involved, or other geometrical factors. Detailed numerical results for specific examples are presented in support of the analytical results.