Atomically precise construction of uniform single-molecule junctions for molecular electronics

作者：Mingyao Li, Bing Yin, Boyu Wang, Weilin Hu, Jie Cheng, Chunyan Gao, Zezhou Li, Xu Yang, Chen Yang, Xinmiao Xie, Jie Guo, Cong Zhao, Jinying Wang, Xike Gao, Yanfeng Zhang, Jihan Zhou, Zhiqing Yang, Agostino Migliore, Chuancheng Jia, Xuefeng Guo · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1038/s41467-025-63113-x · 被引用次数：6 · 研究领域：Molecular Junctions and Nanostructures、Quantum and electron transport phenomena、Graphene research and applications

Atomically precise construction of ultra-small electronic devices meets the urgent need for further device miniaturisation and enables numerous electronic applications. In particular, single-molecule junctions are attractive because they serve as platforms for studying fundamental scientific laws at the single-molecule level and can be used to build functional devices. Here, we present a robust methodology using anisotropic hydrogen plasma etching of graphene and in situ Friedel-Crafts acylation reaction to construct, with atomic precision, uniform covalently bonded graphene-molecule-graphene (GMG) single-molecule junctions with clear zigzag graphene edges. Applying the methodology to an azulene-type molecule, stable GMG single-molecule junctions are constructed with high yield (~82%) and high uniformity (~1.56% conductance variance over 60 devices). The reliability of the platform is shown via real-time and direct electrical monitoring of the three-level conductance fluctuation of an individual azulene molecule. This work demonstrates a universal single-molecule platform that offers countless opportunities to reveal intrinsic molecular properties and build high-performance functional molecular nanocircuits. Graphene-based electrodes are limited by difficulty in controlling the geometry and variability. Here, the authors present a method to construct covalently bonded, uniform, and high-yield graphene-molecule-graphene single-molecule junctions with high stability and atomic ...