Ionic liquid based approach for single-molecule electronics with cobalt contacts
An electrochemical method is presented for fabricating cobalt thin films for single-molecule electrical transport measurements. These films are electroplated in an aqueous electrolyte, but the crucial stages of electrochemical reduction to remove surface oxide and adsorption of alkane(di)thiol targe...
| Publié dans: | Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids. - 1985. - 30(2014), 47 vom: 02. Dez., Seite 14329-36 |
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| Auteur principal: | |
| Autres auteurs: | , , , , |
| Format: | Article en ligne |
| Langue: | English |
| Publié: |
2014
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| Accès à la collection: | Langmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids |
| Sujets: | Journal Article |
| Résumé: | An electrochemical method is presented for fabricating cobalt thin films for single-molecule electrical transport measurements. These films are electroplated in an aqueous electrolyte, but the crucial stages of electrochemical reduction to remove surface oxide and adsorption of alkane(di)thiol target molecules under electrochemical control to form self-assembled monolayers which protect the oxide-free cobalt surface are carried out in an ionic liquid. This approach yields monolayers on Co that are of comparable quality to those formed on Au by standard self-assembly protocols, as assessed by electrochemical methods and surface infrared spectroscopy. Using an adapted scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) method, we have determined the single-molecule conductance of cobalt/1,8-octanedithiol/cobalt junctions by employing a monolayer on cobalt and a cobalt STM tip in an ionic liquid environment and have compared the results with those of experiments using gold electrodes as a control. These cobalt substrates could therefore have future application in organic spintronic devices such as magnetic tunnel junctions |
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| Description: | Date Completed 20.05.2015 Date Revised 02.12.2014 published: Print-Electronic Citation Status PubMed-not-MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1520-5827 |
| DOI: | 10.1021/la503077c |