Observed suppression of room temperature negative differential resistance in organic monolayers on Si(100)

The ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunnelling microscope was used to probe charge transport through two different organic monolayers, adsorbed on the Si(100) substrate at room temperature. I-V measurements were taken on monolayers of 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy (TEMPO) and cyclopentene for degenerately doped n-type and p-type substrates. Initial I-V measurements for transport through the TEMPO monolayer exhibited a suppression of negative differential resistance (NDR) relative to previously reported charge transport through isolated molecules. I-V measurements were also performed on isolated cyclopentene molecules and cyclopentene monolayers. Similarly to TEMPO monolayers, the cyclopentene monolayers exhibited attenuated NDR behaviour relative to isolated molecules. The observed NDR suppression suggests that the high packing density of organic monolayers influences charge transport through molecule-semiconductor junctions.