Electron Transport and Spin Phenomena in Hybrid Organic/inorganic Systems

Dit proefschrift is goedgekeurd door de promotoren: Prof. dr. ir. Front: Photograph of rubrene single-crystal (partly) overlapping with Co/Al 2 O 3 electrodes and the molecule structure of rubrene (top), and the schematic picture of a monolayer of the molecules [Co(tpy)(tpy-SH)] 2+ and [Zn(tpy)(tpy-SH)] 2+ on gold (bottom). Back: Photograph of Co/Al 2 O 3 structures, representing two electrons and their spin. The height of the structures is approximately 750 µm. voor mijn ouders en mijn vriendin Preface If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?-Albert Einstein While I am writing this preface of my thesis, I realize that more than four years of research at the University of Twente has almost come to an end. Research is not always easy, but I had the luck of benefitting from the help and support of numerous people, who made it a little bit easier. When you start thanking people, there is always the danger of forgetting someone. So I would like to say that I am very grateful to everybody who helped and supported me in any way during the research that I will describe in this thesis, and during projects that did not make it to this thesis. The opportunity for this research position was offered to me by my PhD ad-visor, Wilfred van der Wiel. I am very thankful for this offer, since I very much enjoy doing research. I think our history dates back to an encounter in a lovely hospital at the foot of mount Fuji, and after that we met again in Atsugi and Twente. I enjoyed being your first 'real' PhD student in the SRO NanoElectron-ics, which later became the NanoElectronics Group with you as a full professor, just in time to be my promotor. I learned a lot from your stimulating enthusiasm for research and your creativity in solving (difficult) problems. Thank you for everything! It was also refreshing to hear the chemical point of view from my other pro-motor, David Reinhoudt. I am thankful that I could benefit from your huge experience as a promotor and as a scientist. Tian, you were the second 'real' PhD student in the SRO. It was good to have another PhD student during our weekly meetings, and I also learned a lot from your chemical background. Besides the research, it was always good to have a little small …