2006/05/31 by Andrea Donarini, Milena Grifoni, Klaus Richter · 3 citations
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Semiconductor materials and devices #cond-mat.soft
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.97.166801
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 166801 (2006) · 4 pages, 2 figures, revised final published version
openalex publication_date 2006/10/16 · arxiv created 2006/10/17 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We analyze the interplay between vibrational and electronic degrees of freedom in charge transport across a molecular single-electron transistor. We focus on the wide class of molecules which possess quasidegenerate vibrational eigenstates, while no degeneracy occurs for their anionic configuration. We show that the combined effect of a thermal environment and coupling to leads, involving tunneling events charging and discharging the molecule, leads to a dynamical symmetry breaking where quasidegenerate eigenstates acquire different occupations. This imbalance gives rise to a characteristic asymmetry of the current versus an applied gate voltage.