Prof. Mark Ratner (Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA)
Electron Transfer and Molecular Conductance: Some Mechanistic Issues
Abstract
The original insights that Marcus brought to the issue of electron transfer have proved to provide a superb approach to nearly all problems of charge transfer in molecular systems. In transport junctions, the dissimilarities from the molecular transfer situation (energy sink, nature of the perturbation, environmental coupling, measurement, etc) at first seem to deny any real link. But there is a fundamental identity arising form the motion of a charge in an asymmetric electrochemical potential environment. Using this analogy, we will discuss some advances in junction transport theory, and how they relate to the electron transfer problem in molecules.
