Digging through the (Statistical) Dirt: A Reproducible Method for Single-Molecule Flicker Noise Analysis

Abstract

Flicker noise analysis has found widespread use in the molecular electronics community over the past 9 years. The noise power of the junctions and the value of its scaling exponent n provide information on the spatial overlap of scattering states in single-molecule junctions and give unique insights into quantum transport phenomena at the single-molecule level. The predominant drawback of this analytical tool is the inconsistency of the methodologies employed, resulting in irreproducibility across data sets acquired in different conditions or in different laboratories. Herein, we provide a pathway to a more reproducible methodology, detailing issues with the currently accepted correlation techniques employed and introducing the use of more statistically robust data processing criteria and lower thresholds for data acquisition parameters.