Flicker Noise as a Probe of Electronic Interaction at Metal-Organic Interfaces

Understanding the nature of the charge transport at metal-organic interfaces is fundamental for achieving functional organic electronic devices. The charge transport at such interfaces can be achieved by through-bond and through-space interaction. While through-bond interaction~dominates the electronic coupling in most systems, through-space interaction plays important role when through-bond interaction is suppressed, for example, due to quantum interference. In this talk, we first shed light into the origin of the flicker noise phenomenon in single molecule junctions and show how it can be used to distinguish between through-bond and through-space interaction at metal-organic interfaces using a scanning-tunneling microscope based break junction technique.