Oscillation of conductance in molecular junctions of carbon ladder compounds.

The electrical conductances of dithiolates of polyacene (PA(n)DTs) and polyphenanthrene (PPh(n)DTs), which are typical carbon ladder compounds, are calculated by means of the Landauer formulation combined with density functional theory, where n is the number of benzene rings involved. Surface Green function used in the Landauer formulation is calculated with the Slater-Koster parameters. Attention is turned to the wire-length dependence of the conductances of PA(n)DTs and PPh(n)DTs. The damping of conductance of PA(n)DTs is much smaller than that of PPh(n)DTs because of the small HOMO-LUMO gaps of PA(n)DTs. PA(n)DTs are thus good molecular wires for nanosized electronic devices. Conductance oscillation is found for both molecular wires when n is less than 7. The electrical conductance is enhanced in PA(n)DTs with even-numbered benzene rings, whereas it is enhanced in PPh(n)DTs with odd-numbered benzene rings. The observed conductance oscillation of PA(n)DTs and PPh(n)DTs is due to the oscillation of orbital energy and electron population. Other pi-conjugated oligomers (polyacetylene-DT, oligo(thiophene)-DT, oligo(meso-meso-linked zinc(II) porphyrin-butadiynylene)-DT, oligo(p-phenylethynylene)-DT, and oligo(p-phenylene)-DT) are also studied. In contrast to PA(n)DTs and PPh(n)DTs, the five molecular wires show ordinary exponential decays of conductance.