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Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 046801 (2002) [4 pages]

Current-Induced Forces in Molecular Wires

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M. Di Ventra1, S. T. Pantelides2,3, and N. D. Lang4
1Department of Physics, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
2Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37235
3Solid State Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831
4IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598

See Also: Erratum

Received 7 June 2001; published 9 January 2002

We report first-principles calculations of current-induced forces in molecular wires for which experiments are available. We investigate, as an example, the effect of current-induced forces on a benzene molecule connected to two bulk electrodes via sulfur end groups. We find that the molecule twists around an axis perpendicular to its plane and undergoes a “breathing” oscillation at resonant tunneling via antibonding states. However, current-induced forces do not substantially affect the absolute value of the current for biases as high as 5 V, suggesting that molecular wires can operate at very large electric fields without current-induced breakdown.

© 2002 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.046801
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.046801
PACS:
73.40.Jn, 73.40.Cg, 73.40.Gk, 85.65.+h

See Also

Erratum: M. Di Ventra, S. T. Pantelides, and N. D. Lang, Erratum: Current-Induced Forces in Molecular Wires [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 046801 (2002)], Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 139902 (2002).

 
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