Thesis supervisor: András Halbritter
Location of studies (in Hungarian): BME Institute of Physics, Department of Physics Abbreviation of location of studies: BME
Description of the research topic:
Over the past few decades electronic devices have gone through a rapid developement and miniaturization process, but the fabrication techniques used nowadays (e.g. photo- or electron-beam litography) have reached their limits, so the further miniaturization requires different methods. Molecular electronics offers a good alternative way addressing the miniaturization problem, by aiming for the construction of electronic devices which have an active region consisting of a single molecule or a few of them. To reach the molecular scale size of electronic devices, it is necessary to have information about the transport properties of the metal-molecule-metal structures, therefore recent research in nanophysics adresses the thorough analysis of this type of systems.
Our research group has developed a molecular measurement setup, which enables us to make molecular nanowires both at room and low temperature, and thanks to the high mechanical stability attained in the low temperature measurements, the detailed investigation of the transport processes in metal-molecule-metal systems can be accomplished. The main goal of the PhD research is the investigation of organic molecules at low temperature using this measurement setup.
The former results showed that some molecules (like 4,4’-bipyridine) can bind between two metal electrodes in two (or more) stable configurations, yielding different resistances. The candidate takes an active part in the development of new measurement methods (automated I(V) measurements, noise measurements), and uses these methods to study the resistance states of 4,4’-bipyridine and other similar molecules: obtains the type of different configurations and the transport properties.
A further important goal of the PhD research is the detailed investigation of the molecular breaking and post rupture evolution with robust statistical analysis, and the introduction of new statistical methods (e.g. principle component analysis).
Required language skills: english Further requirements: Experience in experimental physics, data analysis and computer controlled measurements
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