Modification of the conductance of single fullerene molecules by endohedral doping (Art. No. 133118)

Abstract

We use scanning tunneling microscopy to establish controlled contacts to single molecules of endohedrally doped Ce2@C80 fullerenes with C60 as a reference. The stability of the experimental setup allows for the determination of the conductance of Ce2@C80 relative to the conductance of C60.

The endohedral doping reduces the conductance of Ce2@C80 by a factor of about five with respect to C60. Ab initio calculations show that the reason for this reduced conductance is the absence of electron orbitals delocalized over the cage of Ce2@C80 in the energy window of the conductance measurement.

Keywords

• Modification
• conductance
• single
• fullerene
• molecules
• endohedral
• doping
• 133118