Inelastic effects in electronic currents at the nanometer scale

• Main Author: Monturet, Serge
• Language: English
• Published: Université Paul Sabatier - Toulouse III 2008
• Subjects: [PHYS:COND] Physics/Condensed Matter; [PHYS:COND] Physique/Matière Condensée; Electronic transport: inelastic effects; non-equilibrium Green's function; tetrathiafulvalene; density functional theory
• Online Access: http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/tel-00469906; http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/46/99/06/PDF/these.pdf; http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/46/99/06/PDF/Summary.pdf

This thesis deals with inelastic effects in electronic currents. We developed a time-dependent technique and show that this approach gives rich insight into electron-phonon coupling during transport. We compare our results with a time-independent technique and analyse the validity of our model. Finally, the results of a quantum chemistry calculation are presented in the framework of scanning tunneling miscroscopy (STM). We study the chemisorption of a tetrathiafulvalene molecule on a gold surface by performing the calculation of the charge transfer, the induced dipole, and the STM images using the density functional theory.