Single-electron tunneling behavior of organic-molecule-based electronic device

We fabricated electronic devices utilizing chemically synthesized organic molecules and Au nanoparticles and studied their electrical transport properties at low temperature. The Au/Ti electrodes separated by 10-60 nm were fabricated by electron-beam lithography and double-angle shadow evaporation. A self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of the organic molecules was formed on top of the electrodes, which was then bridged with Au nanoparticles trapped by electrostatic trapping. All the devices with SAM exhibited symmetric but nonlinear current-voltage characteristics along with the periodic gate modulation curves at low temperature. Our experimental data suggested that Coulomb blockade of single-electron tunneling is a dominant transport mechanism in our devices.