Conduction transition of nano-scaled molecular wires driven by environment coupling

We propose a hybridization model to simulate a molecular wire coupling with the environmental molecules. Results reveal that the conduction transition from conducting to semiconducting depends on the coupling strength. In our simulations, the non-equilibrium Green's function method is employed to calculate the current-voltage relationship for the molecular wire through metallic contacts. Our calculations show that the band gap can be manipulated from the outside molecules coupling. Temperature dependence of the conductivity is represented in our results with strong dependence in high temperature range, which is qualitatively comparable with the experimental results of DNA. In our results, with small coupling, the current is enhanced by the exchange. On the contrary, too large a coupling results in localization of the transport carriers, leading to a semiconducting like property. We try to associate this study with the conducting property of DNA, which can be manipulated by environmental modulation.