This thesis will review my experimental efforts in measuring charge transport using on-chip and scanning probe techniques at the nanometer size scale, as well as numerical investigations into the charge transport of a single molecular C60 transistor [H. Park et al., Nature (London) 407, 57 (2000)]. Experimentally, I report on efforts to utilize on-chip and scanning probe electronic interfacing for chemical and biological systems for which we expect charge transport measurements to reveal interesting and technologically relevant information. Theoretically, I show how the microscopic force fields in nanostructures can influence their electronic dynamics using the example calculations of a molecular single electron transistor (SET) with a single mode, linearly coupled vibrational environment. These calculations predict a novel negative differential conductance (NDC) effect due to the Franck-Condon quantum dynamics of charged, "vibrating" SET islands in a mechanically soft potential well.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-4603 |
| Date | 01 January 2007 |
| Creators | McCarthy, Kevin D |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
Page generated in 0.0019 seconds