Thermopower measurement and control in molecular junctions via diverse experimental approaches

Abstract

Organic molecular junctions are considered as promising building blocks of future nanoelectronic components including diodes, transistors, and integrated circuits. Experimental investigation of various properties of these junctions represents an essential part of molecular electronics research. Study of thermoelectric parameters such as the Seebeck coefficient has a prominent position, since it provides valuable information about the character of charge transport and the electronic structure of studied molecules. This review covers the latest experimental approaches on how to measure Seebeck coefficient in organic molecular junctions. The main focus of this work is aimed at improvements and upgrades introduced during the last several years in already well-established techniques, or in newly proposed ones. It also outlines the selected experimental results obtained with these techniques, having an impact on the knowledge in the field of molecular thermoelectrics by either observing novel features or explaining previously detected but unidentified phenomena.