The role of the Au electrodes in the electronic and structure properties of a molecular wire

In recent decade, molecular wires have attracted considerable attention due to their unique properties and promising applications.A molecular wire consists a molecular bridge that posses between two metallic electrodes. Novel fabrication methods that connect metallic contacts to a small number of conjugated organic molecules allow the study of the basic transport mechanism of these systems and will provide direction for the potential development of molecular-scale electronic systems. The primary problems facing the molecular electronics designer are measuring and predictingelectron transport. That is due to the fact that molecular electronics is strongly dependent on the quality and nature of the contacts. In metal/molecule/metal junctions (MMMs), the metal of choice is usually Au for its noble properties. Junctions with graphitic, Al, Ti and Mercury drop contacts have also been investigated [1-5].