Electronic transport through benzene molecule: effect of gold contacts

As an example of a simple molecular device, we study electronic transport through a benzene molecule attached to two gold electrodes via sulfur clips. The conductance characteristics of the device is derived for two different atomistic models of the gold contacts: A chain model and part of Au(1 1 1) surface. The results show that the conductance characteristics strongly depends on the model used for the electrodes, therefore this factor should be taken into consideration while comparing different theoretical/experimental results.