by Juan Carlos Cuevas (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain) & Elke Scheer (Universität Konstanz, Germany)

Table of Contents (174k)
Preface (78k)
Chapter 1: The birth of molecular electronics (465k)

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the rapidly developing field of molecular electronics. It focuses on our present understanding of the electrical conduction in single-molecule circuits and provides a thorough introduction to the experimental techniques and theoretical concepts. It will also constitute as the first textbook-like introduction to both the experiment and theory of electronic transport through single atoms and molecules. In this sense, this publication will prove invaluable to both researchers and students interested in the field of nanoelectronics and nanoscience in general.

Molecular Electronics is self-contained and unified in its presentation. It may be used as a textbook on nanoelectronics by graduate students and advanced undergraduates studying physics and chemistry. In addition, included are previously unpublished material that will help researchers gain a deeper understanding into the basic concepts involved in the field of molecular electronics.

• The Birth of Molecular Electronics
• Fabrication of Metallic Atomic-Size Contacts
• Contacting Single Molecules: Experimental Techniques
• The Scattering Approach to Phase-Coherent Transport in Nanocontacts
• Introduction to Green's Function Techniques for Systems in Equilibrium
• Green's Functions and Feynman Diagrams
• Nonequilibrium Green's Functions Formalism
• Formulas of the Electrical Current: Exploiting the Keldysh Formalism
• Electronic Structure I: Tight-Binding Approach
• Electronic Structure II: Density Functional Theory
• The Conductance of a Single Atom
• Spin-Dependent Transport in Ferromagnetic Atomic Contacts
• Coherent Transport Through Molecular Junctions I: Basic Concepts
• Coherent Transport Through Molecular Junctions II: Test-Bed Molecules
• Single-Molecule Transistors: Coulomb Blockade and Kondo Physics
• Vibrationally-Induced Inelastic Current I: Experiment
• Vibrationally-Induced Inelastic Current II: Theory
• The Hopping Regime and Transport Through DNA Molecules
• Beyond Electrical Conductance: Short Noise and Thermal Transport
• Optical Properties of Current-Carrying Molecular Junctions
• What is Missing in This Book?