Vibrational instabilities in resonant electron transport through single-molecule junctions

2011/02/04 by R. Härtle, Michael Thoss, M. Thoss · 3 citations
Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advancements in Semiconductor Devices and Circuit Design #Atomic physics #Chemistry #Coupling (piping) #Electron #Electron transport chain #Excitation #Hot band #Instability #Materials science #Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures #Molecular physics #Molecular vibration #Molecule #Physics #Quantum and electron transport phenomena #Quantum mechanics #Vibrational partition function #cond-mat.mes-hall

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.83.125419

published as Phys. Rev. B 83, 125419 (2011) · 19 pages, 3 figures

arxiv created 2011/02/04 · openalex publication_date 2011/03/23 · arxiv updated 2015/03/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We analyze various limits of vibrationally coupled resonant electron transport in single-molecule junctions. Based on a master equation approach, we discuss analytic and numerical results for junctions under a high bias voltage or weak electronic-vibrational coupling. It is shown that in these limits, the vibrational excitation of the molecular bridge increases indefinitely, i.e., the junction exhibits a vibrational instability. Moreover, our analysis provides analytic results for the vibrational distribution function and reveals that these vibrational instabilities are related to electron-hole pair creation processes.

Citations

• Iterative real-time path integral approach to nonequilibrium quantum transport
• Theory of vibrationally inelastic electron transport through molecular bridges
• Inelastic Scattering and Local Heating in Atomic Gold Wires
• Theory of vibrational absorption sidebands in the Coulomb-blockade regime of single-molecule transistors
• Tunneling through nanosystems: Combining broadening with many-particle states
• Kinetic equations for transport through single-molecule transistors
• Landauer formula for the current through an interacting electron region
• Time-convolutionless master equation for quantum dots: Perturbative expansion to arbitrary order
• Phonon effects in molecular transistors: Quantal and classical treatment
• From tunneling to contact: Inelastic signals in an atomic gold junction from first principles
• Current-induced nonequilibrium vibrations in single-molecule devices
• Transport in molecular states language: Generalized quantum master equation approach

Cited by

• Effect of broadening in the weak-coupling limit of vibrationally coupled electron transport through molecular junctions and the analogy to quantum dot circuit QED systems
• Universality of electronic friction. II. Equivalence of the quantum-classical Liouville equation approach with von Oppen's nonequilibrium Green's function methods out of equilibrium
• The Anderson impurity model out-of-equilibrium: Assessing the accuracy of simulation techniques with an exact current-occupation relation