Transport characterization of a gated molecular device with negative differential resistance

Due to increasing demand for advances in minimization, power consumption and speed of electronic devices, new technologies are emerging in order to replace/support the current semiconductor technology. Molecular electronics is one of the promising technologies that can offer an extreme increase in the integration density, since single molecules could be employed as active electronic devices. This theoretical paper deals with the transport characteristics of a gated molecular device, employing dithiolated Oligo-Phenylene Vinylene (OPV) molecules as testbed. The output current curves show a gate voltage dependency. In addition, a negative differential resistance (NDR) is observed. Transmission spectra, charge density distributions and potential profiles of the molecular device are provided to explain of the gate dependency and NDR behavior.