How Hot are Conducting Molecular Junctions?

molecules is one of the ultimate goals of nanotechnology. While the prospect of applications based on such devices still remains to be seen, they already can be used as wonderful tools to explore fundamental processes, that are also of highest technological importance, at the molecular level. One of these processes is heat generation and dissipation at the nanoscale. Previous experiments have tried to indirectly determine the effective temperature of nanoscale junctions under bias by measuring attributes such as the breaking rate or the force required to break various junctions, which are temperature dependent. Yet, the best method to directly determine the effective temperature of junctions under potential bias is to monitor the (non-equilibrium) occupancy of their vibrational levels. Recently in collaboration with the group of Prof. Ori Cheshnovsky we have demonstrated such a capability in a paper published in Nature Nanotechnology1. Using a