Final Report Summary - MOLECSYNCON (Controlling Tunneling Charge Transport with Organic Synthesis)
The central goal of the proposed work was to translate synthetic chemistry into deterministic control over the properties of molecular tunneling junctions. The secondary goal was the further development and validation of two experimental techniques for making electrical contacts to molecules. Both goals were realized by demonstrating that the positions of resonances in transmission spectra and the positions of energy-levels in molecular tunneling junctions responded to systematic changes to bond topology, electrostatics and irradiation with light. The observable in all cases was the electrical response of tunneling junctions constructed using the two experimental techniques.