Fast and straightforward analysis approach of charge transport data in single molecule junctions

Qian Zhang, Chenguang Liu, Shuhui Tao, Ruowei Yi, Weitao Su, Cezhou Zhao, Chun Zhao, Yannick J. Dappe, Richard J. Nichols, Li Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this study, we introduce an efficient data sorting algorithm, including filters for noisy signals, conductance mapping for analyzing the most dominant conductance group and sub-population groups. The capacity of our data analysis process has also been corroborated on real experimental data sets of Au-1,6-hexanedithiol-Au and Au-1,8-octanedithiol-Au molecular junctions. The fully automated and unsupervised program requires less than one minute on a standard PC to sort the data and generate histograms. The resulting one-dimensional and two-dimensional log histograms give conductance values in good agreement with previous studies. Our algorithm is a straightforward, fast and user-friendly tool for single molecule charge transport data analysis. We also analyze the data in a form of a conductance map which can offer evidence for diversity in molecular conductance. The code for automatic data analysis is openly available, well-documented and ready to use, thereby offering a useful new tool for single molecule electronics.

Original languageEnglish
Article number325701
JournalNanotechnology
Volume29
Issue number32
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Jun 2018

Keywords

  • molecular electronics
  • scanning tunneling microscopy
  • single molecule conductance
  • unsupervised data analysis

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