Effect of rotation on the electronic transport properties of a molecular device

Abstract

Using nonequilibrium Green′s functions in combination with density-functional theory, we investigate the electronic transport properties of a molecular motor device. The calculations show that the transport behavior of the device is sensitive to the rotational orientation of the rotor component. As the angle between the rotor and the stator is varied between 30° and 150°, the conductance of the molecular device oscillates between high and low. Moreover, when the rotor revolves to become vertically aligned with the stator, the current - voltage characteristics of the device display nonlinear behavior. The current decreases when the bias voltage is increased beyond 2.4 V and displays negative differential resistance behavior.