Charge Transport through Carbon Nanomembranes

Molecular junctions incorporating pristine and cross-linked aromatic self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are fabricated and investigated. A two-terminal setup composed of a eutectic Ga–In (EGaIn) top electrode and the gold substrate on which SAMs are prepared as a bottom electrode was used to characterize the charge transport. SAMs of phenylthiol (PT), biphenylthiol (BPT), p-terphenylthiol (TPT), and p-quaterphenylthiol (QPT) are then irradiated with low-energy electrons and converted into carbon nanomembranes (CNMs). A comparison of charge transport through SAMs and CNMs reveals a decrease of conductance of CNM-based junctions by 1 order of magnitude, as well as a conversion of asymmetric junctions with SAMs into symmetric junctions with CNMs, which could be attributed to the decoupling of CNMs from the Au substrate and the partial loss of aromaticity of CNMs after irradiation. Transition voltage spectroscopy (TVS) was also employed to investigate both types of junctions. We observe the length-dependent behavior of transition voltages in both systems and a reduction of transition voltages of CNM-based junctions in comparison to SAM-based junctions.