No Arabic abstract
We observe large, reversible, bias driven changes in the vibrational energies of PCBM, based on simultaneous transport and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) measurements on PCBM-gold junctions. A combination of linear and quadratic shifts in vibrational energies with voltage is analyzed and compared with similar measurements involving C60-gold junctions. A theoretical model based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggests that both a vibrational Stark effect and bias-induced charging of the junction contribute to the shifts in vibrational energies. In the PCBM case, a linear vibrational Stark effect is observed due to the permanent electric dipole moment of PCBM. The vibrational Stark shifts shown here for PCBM junctions are comparable to or larger than the charging effects that dominate in C60 junctions.
Introduction (2) Experimental background: Test beds (8) Theoretical approaches: A microscopic model(10) The electron-phonon coupling(14)Time and energy scales(15) Theoretical methods(19)Numerical calculations(28) Incoherent vs. coherent transport (28) Inelastic tunneling spectroscopy: Experimental background(31) Theoretical considerations:the weak coupling limit(36) Theoretical considerations: moderately strong coupling(41)Comparison of approximation schemes(48)Asymmetry in IETS(51)The origin of dips in IETS signals(53)Computational approaches (56) Effects of electron-electron(e-e)interactions (63) Noise (66) Non-linear conductance phenomena (73) Heating and heat conduction: General considerations(77) Heat generation(81) Heat conduction(85) Junction temperature(88) Current induced reactions (91) Summary and outlook (91)
We propose a very accurate computational scheme for the dynamics of a classical oscillator coupled to a molecular junction driven by a finite bias, including the finite mass effect. We focus on two minimal models for the molecular junction: Anderson-Holstein (AH) and two-site Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) models. As concerns the oscillator dynamics, we are able to recover a Langevin equation confirming what found by other authors with different approaches and assessing that quantum effects come from the electronic subsystem only. Solving numerically the stochastic equation, we study the position and velocity distribution probabilities of the oscillator and the electronic transport properties at arbitrary values of electron-oscillator interaction, gate and bias voltages. The range of validity of the adiabatic approximation is established in a systematic way by analyzing the behaviour of the kinetic energy of the oscillator. Due to the dynamical fluctuations, at intermediate bias voltages, the velocity distributions deviate from a gaussian shape and the average kinetic energy shows a non monotonic behaviour. In this same regime of parameters, the dynamical effects favour the conduction far from electronic resonances where small currents are observed in the infinite mass approximation. These effects are enhanced in the two-site SSH model due to the presence of the intermolecular hopping t. Remarkably, for sufficiently large hopping with respect to tunneling on the molecule, small interaction strengths and at intermediate bias (non gaussian regime), we point out a correspondence between the minima of the kinetic energy and the maxima of the dynamical conductance.
We unravel the critical role of vibrational mode softening in single-molecule electronic devices at high bias. Our theoretical analysis is carried out with a minimal model for molecular junctions, with mode softening arising due to quadratic electron-vibration couplings, and by developing a mean-field approach. We discover that the negative sign of the quadratic electron-vibration coupling coefficient can realize at high voltage a sharp negative differential resistance (NDR) effect with a large peak-to-valley ratio. Calculated current-voltage characteristics, obtained based on ab initio parameters for a nitro-substituted oligo(phenylene ethynylene) junction, agree very well with measurements. Our results establish that vibrational mode softening is a crucial effect at high voltage, underlying NDR, a substantial diode effect, and the breakdown of current-carrying molecular junctions.
A superconducting qubit was driven in an ultrastrong fashion by an oscillatory microwave field, which was created by coupling via the nonlinear Josephson energy. The observed Stark shifts of the `atomic levels are so pronounced that corrections even beyond the lowest-order Bloch-Siegert shift are needed to properly explain the measurements. The quasienergies of the dressed two-level system were probed by resonant absorption via a cavity, and the results are in agreement with a calculation based on the Floquet approach.
The optical Stark effect is a tell-tale signature of coherent light-matter interaction in excitonic systems, wherein an irradiating light beam tunes exciton transition frequencies. Here we show that, when excitons are placed in a nanophotonic cavity, the excitonic Stark effect can become highly nonlinear, exhibiting multi-valued and hysteretic Stark shifts that depend on the history of the irradiating light. This multistable Stark effect (MSE) arises from feedback between the cavity mode occupation and excitonic population, mediated by the Stark-induced mutual tuning of the cavity and excitonic resonances. Strikingly, the MSE manifests even for very dilute exciton concentrations and can yield discontinuous Stark shift jumps of order meV. We expect that the MSE can be realized in readily available transition metal dichalcogenide excitonic systems placed in planar photonic cavities, at modest pump intensities. This phenomenon can provide new means to engineer coupled states of light and matter that can persist even in the single exciton limit.