TY - JOUR

T1 - Thermoelectricity in vertical graphene-C60-graphene architectures

AU - Wu, Qingqing

AU - Sadeghi, Hatef

AU - García-suárez, Víctor M.

AU - Ferrer, Jaime

AU - Lambert, Colin J.

PY - 2017/12/1

Y1 - 2017/12/1

N2 - Recent studies of single-molecule thermoelectricity have identified families of high-performance molecules. However, in order to translate this discovery into practical thin-film energy-harvesting devices, there is a need for an understanding of the fundamental issues arising when such junctions are placed in parallel. This is relevant because controlled scalability might be used to boost electrical and thermoelectric performance over the current single-junction paradigm. As a first step in this direction, we investigate here the properties of two C60 molecules placed in parallel and sandwiched between top and bottom graphene electrodes. In contrast with classical conductors, we find that increasing the number of parallel junctions from one to two can cause the electrical conductance to increase by more than a factor of 2. Furthermore, we show that the Seebeck coefficient is sensitive to the number of parallel molecules sandwiched between the electrodes, whereas classically it should be unchanged. This non-classical behaviour of the electrical conductance and Seebeck coefficient are due to inter-junction quantum interference, mediated by the electrodes, which leads to an enhanced response in these vertical molecular devices.

AB - Recent studies of single-molecule thermoelectricity have identified families of high-performance molecules. However, in order to translate this discovery into practical thin-film energy-harvesting devices, there is a need for an understanding of the fundamental issues arising when such junctions are placed in parallel. This is relevant because controlled scalability might be used to boost electrical and thermoelectric performance over the current single-junction paradigm. As a first step in this direction, we investigate here the properties of two C60 molecules placed in parallel and sandwiched between top and bottom graphene electrodes. In contrast with classical conductors, we find that increasing the number of parallel junctions from one to two can cause the electrical conductance to increase by more than a factor of 2. Furthermore, we show that the Seebeck coefficient is sensitive to the number of parallel molecules sandwiched between the electrodes, whereas classically it should be unchanged. This non-classical behaviour of the electrical conductance and Seebeck coefficient are due to inter-junction quantum interference, mediated by the electrodes, which leads to an enhanced response in these vertical molecular devices.

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-017-10938-2

DO - 10.1038/s41598-017-10938-2

M3 - Journal article

VL - 7

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

SN - 2045-2322

IS - 1

M1 - 11680

ER -