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Adi Salomon

Publications and source records attributed to Adi Salomon.

7 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Radiation damage to alkyl chain monolayers on semiconductor substrates investigated by electron spectroscopy.

Monolayers of alkyl chains, attached through direct Si-C bonds to Si(111), via phosphonates to GaAs(100) surfaces, or deposited as alkyl-silane monolayers on SiO2, are investigated by ultraviolet and inverse photoemission spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Exposure to ultraviolet radiation from a He discharge lamp, or to a beam of energetic electrons, leads to significant damage, presumably associated with radiation- or electron-induced H-abstraction leading to carbon-carbon double-bond formation in the alkyl monolayer. The damage results in an overall distortion of the valence spectrum, in the appearance of (occupied) states above the highest occupied molecular orbital of the alkyl molecule, and in a characteristic (unoccupied state) pi resonance at the edge of the carbon absorption peak. These distortions present a serious challenge for the interpretation of the electronic structure of the monolayer system. We show that extrapolation to zero damage at short exposure times eliminates extrinsic features and allows a meaningful extraction of the density of state of the pristine monolayer from spectroscopy measurements.

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PubMed2006

Importance of monolayer quality for interpreting current transport through organic molecules: alkyls on oxide-free Si.

We study the effect of monolayer quality on the electrical transport through n-Si/C(n)H(2n+1)/Hg junctions (n = 12, 14, and 18) and find that truly high quality layers and only they, yield the type of data, reported by us in Phys. Rev. Lett. 2005, 95, 266807, data that are consistent with the theoretically predicted behavior of a Schottky barrier coupled to a tunnel barrier. By using that agreement as our starting point, we can assess the effects of changing the quality of the alkyl monolayers, as judged from ellipsometer, contact angle, XPS, and ATR-FTIR measurements, on the electrical transport. Although low monolayer quality layers are easily identified by one or more of those characterization tools, as well as from the current-voltage measurements, even a combination of characterization techniques may not suffice to distinguish between monolayers with minor differences in quality, which, nevertheless, are evident in the transport measurement. The thermionic emission mechanism, which in these systems dominates at low forward bias, is the one that is most sensitive to monolayer quality. It serves thus as the best quality control. This is important because, even where tunneling characteristics appear rather insensitive to slightly diminished quality, their correct analysis will be affected, especially if layers of different lengths are also of different quality.

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PubMed2006

How important is the interfacial chemical bond for electron transport through alkyl chain monolayers?

We show that the electrode/molecule chemical bond does not change the tunneling barrier for charge transport through alkyl chain monolayers sandwiched between Si and Hg electrodes. This observation can be understood if the interfacial bond mainly governs the monolayer's structure, while the electronic states due to molecule-electrode bonding do not contribute significantly to tunneling. Yet, the nature of the bond affects the Schottky barrier inside the semiconductor due to changes in the interface dipole.

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PubMed2005

How do electronic carriers cross Si-bound alkyl monolayers?

Electron transport through Si-C bound alkyl chains, sandwiched between and Hg, is characterized by two distinct types of barriers, each dominating in a different voltage range. At low voltage, the current depends strongly on temperature but not on molecular length, suggesting transport by thermionic emission over a barrier in the Si. At higher voltage, the current decreases exponentially with molecular length, suggesting transport limited by tunneling through the molecules. The tunnel barrier is estimated, from transport and photoemission data, to be approximately 1.5 eV with a 0.25m(e) effective mass.

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PubMed2004

Stable room-temperature molecular negative differential resistance based on molecule-electrode interface chemistry.

We show reproducible, stable negative differential resistance (NDR) at room temperature in molecule-controlled, solvent-free devices, based on reversible changes in molecule-electrode interface properties. The active component is the cyclic disulfide end of a series of molecules adsorbed onto mercury. As this active component is reduced, the Hg-molecule contact is broken, and an insulating barrier at the molecule-electrode interface is formed. Therefore, the alignment of the molecular energy levels, relative to the Fermi levels of the electrodes, is changed. This effect results in a decrease in the current with voltage increase as the reduction process progresses, leading to the so-called NDR behavior. The effect is reproducible and repeatable over more than 50 scans without any reduction in the current. The stability of the system, which is in the "solid state" except for the Hg, is due to the molecular design where long alkyl chains keep the molecules aligned with respect to the Hg electrode, even when they are not bound to it any longer.

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PubMed2002

Effect of molecule-metal electronic coupling on through-bond hole tunneling across metal-organic monolayer-semiconductor junctions.

Using Hg/alkyl-chain-monolayer/p-Si devices we find that the type of contact between the chains and the electrodes (chemical bonding or not) is of critical importance for electronic transport across the junctions. As the semiconductor is p-type, the transport is that of holes. In agreement with theory we find that holes tunnel more efficiently through alkyl chains than do electrons.

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