Conjugated thiol linker for enhanced electrical conduction of gold-molecule contacts.

Single-molecule electrical conduction studies are used to evaluate how the molecular linking unit influences the tunneling efficiency in metal−molecule−metal (m-M-m) junctions. This work uses conducting-probe atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM) to compare the molecular conduction of two π-bonded molecules:  one with a single thiol linker, and another with a conjugated double thiol linker at both ends of the molecules. The results demonstrate that the molecule with conjugated double thiol linkers displays higher conduction in gold−molecule−gold junctions than nonconjugated single thiol−gold contacts.