Conductance of individual C60 molecules measured with controllable gold electrodes

We investigated the conductance of C60 molecules using mechanically controllable break-junction electrodes at 10 K in UHV. The molecules are evaporated in situ. With this method, we obtain clean and low-resistance contacts. From the analysis of conductance histograms and differential-conductance dI /dV traces, we deduce the preferred conductance value of a single C60 molecule between gold electrodes to be close to 0.1 G0. The presence of C60 is evidenced by features in the derivative of the dI /dV at energies close to the molecular vibration energies. The characteristics of the molecules disappear upon cold working of the junctions.