E. S. Soldatov1 (

), S. P. Gubin
2, I. A. Maximov
3, G. B. Khomutov
1, V. V. Kolesov
4,
A. N. Sergeev-Cherenkov
1, V. V. Shorokhov
1, K. S. Sulaimankulov
5,
D. B. Suyatin
1
1Faculty of Physics, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992, Moscow, Russia.
2N.S. Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Russian
Academy of Sciences, 119991, Moscow, Russia.
3Lund University, Solvegatan 14 A, S-223 62 LUND, Sweden.
4Institute of Radioengineering & Electronics, Russian Academy of Sciences,
103907, Moscow, Russia.
5Institute of Chemistry & Chemical Technology, National Academy of
Sciences, 720071, Bishkek, Republic of Kirgistan.
The usage of molecular clusters as a basis of molecular electronic systems is
considered experimentaly and theoreticaly. The technique of formation of the
molecular structures based on the organometallic nanocluster molecules using
Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technology is described. This technique allows to
create reproducibly the nanostructures with preset structural characteristics:
separate clusters, one-dimensional chains of clusters, two-dimensional regular
arrays of clusters.. The structural study as well as electron transfer
characteristic measurements was made by scanning tunneling microscope (STM)
for a large number of cluster molecules that are chemically different and
variable in composition. Asymmetric clusters are shown to be better for this
technology. The single-electron (correlated) tunneling (SET) effect is studied
in the systems based on the single organometallic nanocluster molecules. A
molecular single-electron transistor on the base of a single cluster molecule
operating at room temperature was realized. An analysis of I-V curves and
control curves of such transistors with various molecules as a central
electrode have shown that the atomic and electronic structure of nanoclusters
containing in the core from 3 to 23 metal atoms have no crucial importance for
the realization of the transistor effect in itself. The charge sensitivity of
the systems at room temperature was estimated from measured parameters of
transistors. It appears to be about 10-4 e/Hz1/2 at room temperature which is
close to the typical values for metallic thin-film low-temperature (100 mK)
single-electron systems. The planar molecular nanosystems with arrays of
molecules in the narrow gaps (less than 10 nm) between the metal electrodes
were implemented. Study of electron transport through such systems at room
temperature have shown the correlated character of electron tunneling in such
systems It show the possibility of design of practical molecular SET devices.
I-V curves of molecular SET transistor are simulated based on a modified
theory of single-electronics that accounts for the discreteness of the energy
spectrum of the molecule. This simulation was performed including for the
first time the effects of energy relaxation of the electrons in the molecule
for two limiting cases of fast and slow relaxation, and for two types of the
molecule energy spectrum. A comparison of the simulated I-V curves with the
experimental ones allow to conclude that the experimental conditions
correspond to the slow energy relaxation case.This work was supported in part
by INTAS-99-00864, ISTC (Gr. No.1991) RFBR (99-03-32218, 01-02-16580).