Thin layers of oligomers with thickness between 7 and 9 nm were deposited on flat gold electrode surfaces by electrochemical reduction of diazonium reagents, then a Ti(2 nm)/Au top contact was applied to complete a solid-state molecular junction. The molecular layers investigated included donor molecules with relatively high energy HOMO, molecules with high HOMO-LUMO gaps and acceptor molecules with low energy LUMO and terminal alkyl chain. Using an oligo(bisthienylbenzene) based layer, a molecule whose HOMO energy level in a vacuum is close to the Fermi level of the gold bottom electrode, the devices exhibit robust and highly reproducible rectification ratios above 1000 at low voltage (2.7 V). Higher current is observed when the bottom gold electrode is biased positively. When the molecular layer is based on a molecule with a high HOMO-LUMO gap, i.e., tetrafluorobenzene, no rectification is observed, while the direction of rectification is reversed if the molecular layer consists of naphtalene diimides having low LUMO energy level. Rectification persisted at low temperature (7 K), and was activationless between 7 and 100 K. The results show that rectification is induced by the asymmetric contact but is also directly affected by orbital energies of the molecular layer. A "molecular signature" on transport through layers with thicknesses above those used when direct tunneling dominates is thus clearly observed, and the rectification mechanism is discussed in terms of Fermi level pinning and electronic coupling between molecules and contacts.

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ABSTRACT:The photo-curing behavior of reactive blends of dipentaerythritol penta/hexaacrylate (DPHA) with an acrylated hyperbranched polyester and an acrylated hyperbranched polyether was investigated by means of photo differential scanning calorimetry. The chemical conversion data was analyzed using an autocatalytic model with close attention paid to the influence of composition, UV intensity, and vitrification. The autocatalytic model was found to be relevant to describe autoacceleration and diffusion controlled reaction stages, as long as the polymers were not vitrified. It was shown that the reaction order and the autocatalytic exponent were independent of UV intensity, whereas the rate constant showed strong intensity dependence, and the maximal conversion showed weak intensity dependence. A criterion for vitrification onset was proposed as the occurrence of a third stage in the conversion process. The ultimate conversion was found to be 0.16 higher than the conversion at vitrification for all investigated multifunctional acrylates independent of composition and UV intensity.