Exploiting the plasmonic trapping in single-molecule junctions

Inspired by the proposal that single molecules will be functional elements of future nanoelectronic devices, there exists considerable interest in understanding charge transport in individual molecules. To study charge transport in single-molecule junctions, we exploit the STM microscope’s Blinking approach. It is a “current vs. time” molecular capturing procedure, able to electrically detect spontaneous individual molecular junctions under a constant sub-nm precise interelectrode distance. Here, we will present a novel plasmon-supported methodology (PBJ), based on Blinking to increase the timescale of the junctions. The (stabilising) force of the nearfield gradient is exploited to provide additional endurance to junctions, increasing the detected lifetime from hundreds of milliseconds to the order of seconds. Also, we will present our advances exploiting PBJ under electrochemical control, trapping redox metalloproteins resonant to the localized surface plasmon excitation wavelength.