Rectification Characteristics in Saturated Molecular Junction

One of the molecular systems that has been studied extensively is saturated molecules, such as alkanethiol CH₃(CH₂) _n-1-SH. In present paper, molecular junctions were constructed by using a sandwich structure that consists of metal electrode/self-assembled monolayers (SAM)/Au coated conducting-probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM) tip. The dependence of I-V characteristics on the length of molecules was investigated to explain electron transfer process in saturated molecules. Tunneling was confirmed as the dominant mechanism. Rectification effect was demonstrated in the sandwich structure, and possible explanation based on the tunneling model was proposed