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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

Electron tunneling studies of Mn12-Acetate

Ma, Lianxi 10 October 2008 (has links)
We used self-assembling tunnel junctions (SATJs) to study the electron transport through films of the molecular magnets, Mn12-Acetate. Pulse laser deposition (PLD) was used to deposit two monolayers of Mn12-Acetate on thin Pt wires (diameter 0.001 in). The electron tunneling current was measured with typical bias voltages from -1 to 1 V at liquid helium temperature, 4.2 K. I, dI/dV , and d2I/dV 2 signals were directly acquired with the aid of a current amplifier and two lock-in-amplifiers. Results show that the differential conductance is approximately 10â 6 S for bias voltages 0.04 V < or =| V |< or = V and exhibits a strong voltage dependence. In the region | V |< or = 0.04 V, we find a zero-bias feature (ZBF) in which the differential conductance is suppressed. In some samples, we observe I -V staircases which we attribute to electrons "hopping" between the electrodes and the molecules. The observed hysteresis was attributed to the slow relaxation of molecules re-orienting within the junction. Abrupt conductance jumps at a bias voltage of -0.12 V were also observed and may indicate state transitions in the Mn12-Acetate molecules. Furthermore, we observed that the zero bias feature (ZBF) can switch from an enhancement to a suppression of the differential conductance. A dip and dry (DAD) method was also used to form films of Mn12-Acetate on Al and Pt wires. Although the conductances were similar to those obtained using the PLD method, there were some subtle differences. In particular, we did not observe the I -V staircases and the state jumps were more ambiguous. The differential conductance for the Mn12-Acetate films on Al wires were typically 10- 7 S, which we attributed to the oxide layer on Al surfaces. We have also found substantial changes in the I - V characteristics when the Pt wires coated with the Mn12-Acetate films were stored in 10-2 Torr for 6 months. In particular, we observed many new features such as peaks in the conductance as a function as the bias voltage. We believe that these effects may be caused by the slow oxidation of the Mn12-Acetate molecules.

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