1363159-08-3Relevant academic research and scientific papers
Conductive molecular silicon
Klausen, Rebekka S.,Widawsky, Jonathan R.,Steigerwald, Michael L.,Venkataraman, Latha,Nuckolls, Colin
, p. 4541 - 4544 (2012)
Bulk silicon, the bedrock of information technology, consists of the deceptively simple electronic structure of just Si-Si σ bonds. Diamond has the same lattice structure as silicon, yet the two materials have dramatically different electronic properties. Here we report the specific synthesis and electrical characterization of a class of molecules, oligosilanes, that contain strongly interacting Si-Si σ bonds, the essential components of the bulk semiconductor. We used the scanning tunneling microscope-based break-junction technique to compare the single-molecule conductance of these oligosilanes to those of alkanes. We found that the molecular conductance decreases exponentially with increasing chain length with a decay constant β = 0.27 ± 0.01 A-1, comparable to that of a conjugated chain of C = C π bonds. This result demonstrates the profound implications of σ conjugation for the conductivity of silicon.
