Electronic Properties of Alkanethiol Molecular Junctions: Conduction Mechanisms, Metal-Molecule Contacts, and Inelastic Transport

We present a review on the electronic transport properties through alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers in microscale or nanoscale metal-molecule-metal junctions. Here, we focused on the charge conduction mechanisms and the metal-molecule contact effects in molecular junctions. The main conduction through alkanethiol molecules occurs is a elastic tunneling, while inelastic tunneling occurs via coupling with tunneling electrons and molecular vibrational modes at low temperature. Statistical analyses on the electronic transport properties provide an insight of metal-molecule contact effect in the conduction mechanism.