Physical Society Colloquium

Molecular Transport Structures: Elastic Scattering, Noise and Beyond

Mark A. Ratner

Chemistry Dept. and Center for Nanotechnology
Northwestern University

Current experimental efforts are clarifying quite beautifully the nature of charge transport in so-called molecular junctions, in which a single molecule provides the channel for current flow between two electrodes. The theoretical modeling of such structures is challenging, because of the uncertainty of geometry, the nonequilibrium nature of the process, and the variety of available mechanisms. The talk will center on the first formulation of the problem in terms of scattering theory, and then on the generalizations needed to make that simple picture relevant to the real experimental situation. These include vibronic coupling, structural disorder and energy transfer. Some comments will be made on the measurements of noise spectra, and the information to be gained from them.