Bias-dependent bandwidth of the conductance in the presence of electron-phonon interaction

Abstract

We study the electronic transport in the presence of electron-phonon interaction (EPI) for a molecular electronic device. Instead of mean field approximation (MFA), the related phonon correlation function is conducted with the Langreth theorem (LT). We present formal expressions for the bandwidth of the electron's spectral function in the central region of the devices, such as quantum dot (QD), or single molecular transistor (SMT). Our results show that the out-tunneling rate depends on the energy, bias voltage and the phonon field. Besides, the predicted conductance map, behaving as a function of bias voltage and the gate voltage, gets blurred at the high bias voltage region. These EPI effects are consistent with the experimental observations in the EPI transport experiment. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.