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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik
MM 31: Transport in Materials: Diffusion, Charge, or Heat Conduction II
MM 31.2: Vortrag
Donnerstag, 12. März 2026, 10:30–10:45, SCH/A216
Phonon Interference in Single-Molecule Junctions — Sai C. Yelishala1, Yunxuan Zhu1, •Pablo M. Martinez2,3, Hongxuan Chen4, Mohammad Habibi1, Giacomo Prampolini5, Juan Carlos Cuevas3,6, Wei Zhang4, Guilherme Vilhena2, and Longji Cui1,7 — 1Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, USA — 2Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid (ICMM-CSIC), Spain. — 3Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain. — 4Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, USA — 5Istituto di Chimica dei Composti Organo Metallici (ICCOM-CNR), Italy. — 6Condensed Matter Physics Center (IFIMAC), Spain — 7Materials Science and Engineering Program and Center for Experiments on Quantum Materials, University of Colorado Boulder, USA.
Wave interference opens a new route to control transport properties and has been widely studied in electronic and photonic materials. However, interference of phonons, which govern thermal transport in insulators, has been poorly characterized due to experimental challenges. We report the observation of phonon interference at room temperature in molecular-scale junctions. This is enabled by custom-developed scanning thermal probes which can track heat flowing through a single molecular junction at a time. Using isomers of oligo(phenylene ethynylene)3 with either para- or meta-connected centre rings, we reveal a 40% reduction in thermal conductance for the latter. Quantum-mechanically accurate simulations show this difference arises from the destructive interference of phonons through the molecular backbone.
Keywords: Molecular electronics; Heat transport; Scanning probe; Molecular dynamics; Force field development