Electron transfer across a thermal gradient

Heat Transport Hysteresis Generated Through Frequency Switching of a Time-Dependent Temperature Gradient

A stochastic energetics framework is applied to examine how periodically shifting the frequency of a time-dependent oscillating temperature gradient affects heat transport in a nanoscale molecular model. We specifically examine the effects that frequency switching, i.e., instantaneously changing the oscillation frequency of the temperature gradient, has on the shape of the heat transport hysteresis curves generated by a particle connected to two thermal baths, each with a temperature that is oscillating in time. Analytical expressions are derived for the energy fluxes in/out of the system and the baths, with excellent agreement observed between the analytical expressions and the results from nonequilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We find that the shape of the heat transport hysteresis curves can be significantly altered by shifting the frequency between fast and slow oscillation regimes. We also observe the emergence of features in the hysteresis curves such as pinched loops and complex multi-loop patterns due to the frequency shifting. The presented results have implications in the design of thermal neuromorphic devices such as thermal memristors and thermal memcapacitors.

The effect of temperature oscillations on energy storage rectification in harmonic systems

Rectification, the preferential transport of a current in one direction through a system, has garnered significant attention in molecules because of its importance for controlling thermal and electronic currents at the nanoscale. Here, we report the presence of energy storage rectification effects in a molecular chain. This phenomenon is generated by subjecting a harmonic molecular chain to an oscillating temperature gradient and showing that the energy absorption rate of the system depends on the direction of the gradient. We examine how the energy storage rectification ratios in the chain are affected by the oscillating gradient, asymmetry in the chain, and the system parameters. We find that energy storage rectification can be observed in harmonic lattice structures with time-dependent temperatures and that, correspondingly, anharmonicity is not required to generate this rectification mechanism in such systems.

Molecular heat transport across a time-periodic temperature gradient

The time-periodic modulation of a temperature gradient can alter the heat transport properties of a physical system. Oscillating thermal gradients give rise to behaviors such as modified thermal conductivity and controllable time-delayed energy storage that are not present in a system with static temperatures. Here, we examine how the heat transport properties of a molecular lattice model are affected by an oscillating temperature gradient. We use analytical analysis and molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the vibrational heat flow in a molecular lattice system consisting of a chain of particles connected to two heat baths at different temperatures, where the temperature difference between baths is oscillating in time. We derive expressions for heat currents in this system using a stochastic energetics framework and a nonequilibrium Green's function approach that is modified to treat the nonstationary average energy fluxes. We find that emergent energy storage, energy release, and thermal conductance mechanisms induced by the temperature oscillations can be controlled by varying the frequency, waveform, and amplitude of the oscillating gradient. The developed theoretical approach provides a general framework to describe how vibrational heat transmission through a molecular lattice is affected by temperature gradient oscillations.

Thermoelectric properties of Marcus molecular junctions

In the present work we theoretically analyze thermoelectric transport in single-molecule junctions (SMJ) characterized by strong interactions between electrons on the molecular linkers and phonons in their nuclear environments where electron hopping between the electrodes and the molecular bridge states predominates in the steady state electron transport. The analysis is based on the modified Marcus theory accounting for the lifetime broadening of the bridge's energy levels. We show that the reorganization processes in the environment accompanying electron transport may significantly affect SMJ thermoelectric properties both within and beyond linear transport regime. Specifically, we study the effect of environmental phonons on the electron conductance, the thermopower and charge current induced by the temperature gradient applied across the system.

Theoretical Advances in Polariton Chemistry and Molecular Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics

When molecules are coupled to an optical cavity, new light-matter hybrid states, so-called polaritons, are formed due to quantum light-matter interactions. With the experimental demonstrations of modifying chemical reactivities by forming polaritons under strong light-matter interactions, theorists have been encouraged to develop new methods to simulate these systems and discover new strategies to tune and control reactions. This review summarizes some of these exciting theoretical advances in polariton chemistry, in methods ranging from the fundamental framework to computational techniques and applications spanning from photochemistry to vibrational strong coupling. Even though the theory of quantum light-matter interactions goes back to the midtwentieth century, the gaps in the knowledge of molecular quantum electrodynamics (QED) have only recently been filled. We review recent advances made in resolving gauge ambiguities, the correct form of different QED Hamiltonians under different gauges, and their connections to various quantum optics models. Then, we review recently developed ab initio QED approaches which can accurately describe polariton states in a realistic molecule-cavity hybrid system. We then discuss applications using these method advancements. We review advancements in polariton photochemistry where the cavity is made resonant to electronic transitions to control molecular nonadiabatic excited state dynamics and enable new photochemical reactivities. When the cavity resonance is tuned to the molecular vibrations instead, ground-state chemical reaction modifications have been demonstrated experimentally, though its mechanistic principle remains unclear. We present some recent theoretical progress in resolving this mystery. Finally, we review the recent advances in understanding the collective coupling regime between light and matter, where many molecules can collectively couple to a single cavity mode or many cavity modes. We also lay out the current challenges in theory to explain the observed experimental results. We hope that this review will serve as a useful document for anyone who wants to become familiar with the context of polariton chemistry and molecular cavity QED and thus significantly benefit the entire community.

Energy transport between heat baths with oscillating temperatures

Energy transport is a fundamental physical process that plays a prominent role in the function and performance of myriad systems and technologies. Recent experimental measurements have shown that subjecting a macroscale system to a time-periodic temperature gradient can increase thermal conductivity in comparison to a static temperature gradient. Here, we theoretically examine this mechanism in a nanoscale model by applying a stochastic Langevin framework to describe the energy transport properties of a particle connecting two heat baths with different temperatures, where the temperature difference between baths is oscillating in time. Analytical expressions for the energy flux of each heat bath and for the system itself are derived for the case of a free particle and a particle in a harmonic potential. We find that dynamical effects in the energy flux induced by temperature oscillations give rise to complex energy transport hysteresis effects. The presented results suggest that applying time-periodic temperature modulations is a potential route to control energy storage and release in molecular devices and nanosystems.

Oxide- and Silicate-Water Interfaces and Their Roles in Technology and the Environment

Interfacial reactions drive all elemental cycling on Earth and play pivotal roles in human activities such as agriculture, water purification, energy production and storage, environmental contaminant remediation, and nuclear waste repository management. The onset of the 21st century marked the beginning of a more detailed understanding of mineral aqueous interfaces enabled by advances in techniques that use tunable high-flux focused ultrafast laser and X-ray sources to provide near-atomic measurement resolution, as well as by nanofabrication approaches that enable transmission electron microscopy in a liquid cell. This leap into atomic- and nanometer-scale measurements has uncovered scale-dependent phenomena whose reaction thermodynamics, kinetics, and pathways deviate from previous observations made on larger systems. A second key advance is new experimental evidence for what scientists hypothesized but could not test previously, namely, interfacial chemical reactions are frequently driven by "anomalies" or "non-idealities" such as defects, nanoconfinement, and other nontypical chemical structures. Third, progress in computational chemistry has yielded new insights that allow a move beyond simple schematics, leading to a molecular model of these complex interfaces. In combination with surface-sensitive measurements, we have gained knowledge of the interfacial structure and dynamics, including the underlying solid surface and the immediately adjacent water and aqueous ions, enabling a better definition of what constitutes the oxide- and silicate-water interfaces. This critical review discusses how science progresses from understanding ideal solid-water interfaces to more realistic systems, focusing on accomplishments in the last 20 years and identifying challenges and future opportunities for the community to address. We anticipate that the next 20 years will focus on understanding and predicting dynamic transient and reactive structures over greater spatial and temporal ranges as well as systems of greater structural and chemical complexity. Closer collaborations of theoretical and experimental experts across disciplines will continue to be critical to achieving this great aspiration.

Electron hopping heat transport in molecules

The realization of single-molecule thermal conductance measurements has driven the need for theoretical tools to describe conduction processes that occur over atomistic length scales. In macroscale systems, the principle that is typically used to understand thermal conductivity is Fourier's law. At molecular length scales, however, deviations from Fourier's law are common in part because microscale thermal transport properties typically depend on the complex interplay between multiple heat conduction mechanisms. Here, the thermal transport properties that arise from electron transfer across a thermal gradient in a molecular conduction junction are examined theoretically. We illustrate how transport in a model junction is affected by varying the electronic structure and length of the molecular bridge in the junction as well as the strength of the coupling between the bridge and its surrounding environment. Three findings are of note: First, the transport properties can vary significantly depending on the characteristics of the molecular bridge and its environment; second, the system's thermal conductance commonly deviates from Fourier's law; and third, in properly engineered systems, the magnitude of electron hopping thermal conductance is similar to what has been measured in single-molecule devices.

Heat transport induced by electron transfer: A general temperature quantum calculation

Electron transfer dominates chemical processes in biological, inorganic, and material chemistry. Energetic aspects of such phenomena, in particular, the energy transfer associated with the electron transfer process, have received little attention in the past but are important in designing energy conversion devices. This paper generalizes our earlier work in this direction, which was based on the semiclassical Marcus theory of electron transfer. It provides, within a simple model, a unified framework that includes the deep (nuclear) tunneling limit of electron transfer and the associated heat transfer when the donor and acceptor sites are seated in environments characterized by different local temperatures. The electron transfer induced heat conduction is shown to go through a maximum at some intermediate average temperature where quantum effects are already appreciable, and it approaches zero when the average temperature is very high (the classical limit) or very low (deep tunneling).

Environment-dependent vibrational heat transport in molecular junctions: Rectification, quantum effects, vibrational mismatch

Vibrational heat transport in molecular junctions is a central issue in different contemporary research areas such as chemistry, materials science, mechanical engineering, thermoelectrics, and power generation. Our model system consists of a chain of molecules which are sandwiched between two solids that are maintained at different temperatures. We employ a quantum self-consistent reservoir model, which is built on a generalized quantum Langevin equation, to investigate quantum effects and far from equilibrium conditions on thermal conduction at nanoscale. The present self-consistent reservoir model can easily mimic the phonon-phonon scattering mechanisms. Different thermal environments are modeled as (i) Ohmic, (ii) sub-Ohmic, and (iii) super-Ohmic environments, and their effects are demonstrated for the thermal rectification properties of the system with spring graded or mass graded features. The behavior of heat current across molecular junctions as a function of chain length, temperature gradient, and phonon scattering rates are studied. Further, our analysis reveals the effects of vibrational mismatch between the solids phonon spectra on heat transfer characteristics in molecular junctions for different thermal environments.

Decoding Chemical and Physical Processes Driving Plasmonic Photocatalysis Using Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopies

In order to mitigate the advancing effects of environmental pollution and climate change, immediate action is needed on social, political, and industrial fronts. One segment of industry that contributes significantly to this current crisis is bulk chemical production, where fossil fuels are primarily used to drive reactions at high temperatures and pressures. Toward mitigating the environmental impact of these processes, solar energy has shown promise as a clean and renewable alternative for the photocatalytic synthesis of chemicals. In recent decades, plasmonic materials have emerged as candidates for making this a reality. Because of their unique and tunable interactions with light, plasmonic materials can be used to create energy-rich nanoscale environments. In fact, there is a growing library of chemical reactions that can utilize this plasmonic energy to drive industrially relevant chemistries under standard ambient conditions. However, the efficiency of these reactions is typically low, and a lack of mechanistic understanding of how energy is transferred from plasmons to molecules hinders reaction optimization for use on large scales.To decode the complex chemical and physical processes involved in plasmon-driven photocatalytic reactions, we use surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). In this Account, we detail SERS techniques that we have used and are developing to study molecular transformations, charge transfer, and plasmonic heating in dynamic plasmon-molecule systems on time scales ranging from seconds to femtoseconds. SERS is an ideal analytical tool for understanding plasmon-molecule interactions, as it gives highly specific information about molecular vibrations with high sensitivity, down to the single-molecule level. Importantly, SERS allows for simultaneous pumping of a plasmonic resonance and probing of the enhanced Raman signal from nearby molecules. We have already used these techniques to study a plasmon-driven methyl migration with nanoscale spatial specificity and to understand the charge transfer mechanism and role of heating in the plasmon-mediated dimerization of 4-nitrobenzenethiol. Importantly, from this work we conclude that direct charge transfer, not heating, may play a significant role in driving many plasmon-driven reactions. Despite these recent insights, more work is needed in order to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the broad range of chemistries accessible in plasmon-molecule systems. In the future, our continued development of these SERS-based techniques shows promise in answering questions regarding direct charge transfer, resonance energy transfer, and excitation conditions in plasmon-mediated chemistries.

Eyring equation and fluctuation-dissipation far away from equilibrium

Understanding and managing the influence that either external forces or non-equilibrated environments may have on chemical processes is essential for the current and future development of theoretical chemistry. One of the central questions to solve is how to generalize the transition state theory in order to make it applicable in far from equilibrium situations. In this sense, here we propose a way to generalize Eyring's equation based on the definition of an effective thermal energy (temperature) emerging from the coupling of both fast and slow dynamic variables analyzed within the generalized Langevin dynamics scheme. This coupling makes the energy distribution of the fast degrees of freedom not equilibrate because they have been enslaved to the dynamics of the corresponding slow degrees. However, the introduction of the effective thermal energy enables us to restore an effective adiabatic separation of timescales leading to a renormalization of the generalized fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Hence, this procedure opens the possibility to deal with systems far away from equilibrium. A significant consequence of our results is that Eyring's equation is generalized to treat systems under the influence of strong external forces.

Polariton-Mediated Electron Transfer via Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics

We investigate the polariton-mediated electron transfer reaction in a model system with analytic rate constant theory and direct quantum dynamical simulations. We demonstrate that the photoinduced charge transfer reaction between a bright donor state and dark acceptor state can be significantly enhanced or suppressed by coupling the molecular system to the quantized radiation field inside an optical cavity. This is because the quantum light-matter interaction can influence the effective driving force and electronic couplings between the donor state, which is the hybrid light-matter excitation, and the molecular acceptor state. Under the resonance condition between the photonic and electronic excitations, the effective driving force can be tuned by changing the light-matter coupling strength; for an off-resonant condition, the same effect can be accomplished by changing the molecule-cavity detuning. We further demonstrate that using both the electronic coupling and light-matter coupling helps to extend the effective couplings across the entire system, even for the dark state that carries a zero transition dipole. Theoretically, we find that both the counter-rotating terms and the dipole self-energy in the quantum electrodynamics Hamiltonian are important for obtaining an accurate polariton eigenspectrum as well as the polariton-mediated charge transfer rate constant, especially in the ultrastrong coupling regime.

Energy, Work, Entropy, and Heat Balance in Marcus Molecular Junctions

We present a consistent theory of energy balance and conversion in a single-molecule junction with strong interactions between electrons on the molecular linker (dot) and phonons in the nuclear environment where the Marcus-type electron hopping processes predominate in the electron transport. It is shown that the environmental reorganization and relaxation that accompany electron hopping energy exchange between the electrodes and the nuclear (molecular and solvent) environment may bring a moderate local cooling of the latter in biased systems. The effect of a periodically driven dot level on the heat transport and power generated in the system is analyzed, and energy conservation is demonstrated both within and beyond the quasistatic regime. Finally, a simple model of atomic scale engine based on a Marcus single-molecule junction with a driven electron level is suggested and discussed.

Wiedemann-Franz Law for Molecular Hopping Transport

The Wiedemann-Franz (WF) law is a fundamental result in solid-state physics that relates the thermal and electrical conductivity of a metal. It is derived from the predominant transport mechanism in metals: the motion of quasi-free charge-carrying particles. Here, an equivalent WF relationship is developed for molecular systems in which charge carriers are moving not as free particles but instead hop between redox sites. We derive a concise analytical relationship between the electrical and thermal conductivity generated by electron hopping in molecular systems and find that the linear temperature dependence of their ratio as expressed in the standard WF law is replaced by a linear dependence on the nuclear reorganization energy associated with the electron hopping process. The robustness of the molecular WF relation is confirmed by examining the conductance properties of a paradigmatic molecular junction. This result opens a new way to analyze conductivity in molecular systems, with possible applications advancing the design of molecular technologies that derive their function from electrical and/or thermal conductance.

Electron Transfer Methods in Open Systems

Utilization of electron transfer methods for description of quantum transport is popular due to simplicity of the formulation and its ability to account for basic physics of electron exchange between the system and baths. At the same time, the necessity to go beyond simple golden rule-type expressions for rates was indicated in the literature and ad hoc formulations were proposed. Similarly, kinetic schemes for quantum transport beyond the usual second-order Lindblad/Redfield considerations were discussed. Here we utilize recently introduced the nonequilibrium Hubbard Green's function diagrammatic technique to analyze the construction of rates in open systems. We show that previous considerations for rates of second and fourth order can be obtained as a particular case of zero- and second-order Green's function diagrammatic series with bare diagrams. We discuss limitations of previous considerations, stress advantages of the Hubbard Green's function approach in constructing the rates, and indicate that standard dressing of the diagrams is a natural way to account for additional baths/degrees of freedom in the formulation of generalized expressions for the rates.

Electron transfer in confined electromagnetic fields

The interaction between molecular (atomic) electron(s) and the vacuum field of a reflective cavity generates significant interest, thanks to the rapid developments in nanophotonics. Such interaction which lies within the realm of cavity quantum electrodynamic can substantially affect the transport properties of molecular systems. In this work, we consider a nonadiabatic electron transfer process in the presence of a cavity mode. We present a generalized framework for the interaction between a charged molecular system and a quantized electromagnetic field of a cavity and apply it to the problem of electron transfer between a donor and an acceptor placed in a confined vacuum electromagnetic field. The effective system Hamiltonian corresponds to a unified Rabi and spin-boson model which includes a self-dipole energy term. Two limiting cases are considered: one where the electron is assumed much faster than the cavity mode and another in which the electron tunneling time is significantly larger than the mode period. In both cases, a significant rate enhancement can be produced by coupling to the cavity mode in the Marcus inverted region. The results of this work offer new possibilities for controlling electron transfer processes using visible and infrared plasmonics.

Electron-Transfer-Induced Thermal and Thermoelectric Rectification

Controlling the direction and magnitude of both heat and electronic currents using rectifiers has significant implications for the advancement of molecular circuit design. In order to facilitate the implementation of new transport phenomena in such molecular structures, we examine thermal and thermoelectric rectification effects that are induced by an electron transfer process that occurs across a temperature gradient between molecules. Historically, the only known heat conduction mechanism able to generate thermal rectification in purely molecular environments is phononic heat transport. Here, we show that electron transfer between molecular sites with different local temperatures can also generate a thermal rectification effect and that electron hopping through molecular bridges connecting metal leads at different temperatures gives rise to asymmetric Seebeck effects, that is, thermoelectric rectification, in molecular junctions.

Upside/Downside statistical mechanics of nonequilibrium Brownian motion. II. Heat transfer and energy partitioning of a free particle

The energy partitioning during activation and relaxation events under steady-state conditions for a Brownian particle driven by multiple thermal reservoirs of different local temperatures is investigated. Specifically, we apply the formalism derived in Paper I [G. T. Craven and A. Nitzan, J. Chem. Phys. 148, 044101 (2018)] to examine the thermal transport properties of two sub-ensembles of Brownian processes, distinguished at any given time by the specification that all the trajectories in each group have, at that time, energy either above (upside) or below (downside) a preselected energy threshold. Dynamical properties describing energy accumulation and release during activation/relaxation events and relations for upside/downside energy partitioning between thermal reservoirs are derived. The implications for heat transport induced by upside and downside events are discussed.

Kinetic Schemes in Open Interacting Systems

We discuss utilization of kinetic schemes for description of open interacting systems, focusing on vibrational energy relaxation for an oscillator coupled to a nonequilibirum electronic bath. Standard kinetic equations with constant rate coefficients are obtained under the assumption of time scale separation between the system and bath, with the bath dynamics much faster than that of the system of interest. This assumption may break down in certain limits, and we show that ignoring this may lead to qualitatively wrong predictions. Connection with more general, nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) analysis is demonstrated. Our considerations are illustrated within generic molecular junction models with electron-vibration coupling.

Molecules and the Eigenstate Thermalization Hypothesis

We review a theory that predicts the onset of thermalization in a quantum mechanical coupled non-linear oscillator system, which models the vibrational degrees of freedom of a molecule. A system of N non-linear oscillators perturbed by cubic anharmonic interactions exhibits a many-body localization (MBL) transition in the vibrational state space (VSS) of the molecule. This transition can occur at rather high energy in a sizable molecule because the density of states coupled by cubic anharmonic terms scales as N³, in marked contrast to the total density of states, which scales as exp(aN), where a is a constant. The emergence of a MBL transition in the VSS is seen by analysis of a random matrix ensemble that captures the locality of coupling in the VSS, referred to as local random matrix theory (LRMT). Upon introducing higher order anharmonicity, the location of the MBL transition of even a sizable molecule, such as an organic molecule with tens of atoms, still lies at an energy that may exceed the energy to surmount a barrier to reaction, such as a barrier to conformational change. Illustrative calculations are provided, and some recent work on the influence of thermalization on thermal conduction in molecular junctions is also discussed.

Upside/Downside statistical mechanics of nonequilibrium Brownian motion. I. Distributions, moments, and correlation functions of a free particle

Statistical properties of Brownian motion that arise by analyzing, separately, trajectories over which the system energy increases (upside) or decreases (downside) with respect to a threshold energy level are derived. This selective analysis is applied to examine transport properties of a nonequilibrium Brownian process that is coupled to multiple thermal sources characterized by different temperatures. Distributions, moments, and correlation functions of a free particle that occur during upside and downside events are investigated for energy activation and energy relaxation processes and also for positive and negative energy fluctuations from the average energy. The presented results are sufficiently general and can be applied without modification to the standard Brownian motion. This article focuses on the mathematical basis of this selective analysis. In subsequent articles in this series, we apply this general formalism to processes in which heat transfer between thermal reservoirs is mediated by activated rate processes that take place in a system bridging them.

Electrothermal Transistor Effect and Cyclic Electronic Currents in Multithermal Charge Transfer Networks

A theory is developed to describe the coupled transport of energy and charge in networks of electron donor-acceptor sites which are seated in a thermally heterogeneous environment, where the transfer kinetics are dominated by Marcus-type hopping rates. It is found that the coupling of heat and charge transfer in such systems gives rise to exotic transport phenomena which are absent in thermally homogeneous systems and cannot be described by standard thermoelectric relations. Specifically, the directionality and extent of thermal transistor amplification and cyclical electronic currents in a given network can be controlled by tuning the underlying temperature gradient in the system. The application of these findings toward the optimal control of multithermal currents is illustrated on a paradigmatic nanostructure.

Kinetics of low-temperature transitions and a reaction rate theory from non-equilibrium distributions

This article surveys the empirical information which originated both by laboratory experiments and by computational simulations, and expands previous understanding of the rates of chemical processes in the low-temperature range, where deviations from linearity of Arrhenius plots were revealed. The phenomenological two-parameter Arrhenius equation requires improvement for applications where interpolation or extrapolations are demanded in various areas of modern science. Based on Tolman's theorem, the dependence of the reciprocal of the apparent activation energy as a function of reciprocal absolute temperature permits the introduction of a deviation parameter d covering uniformly a variety of rate processes, from those where quantum mechanical tunnelling is significant and d < 0, to those where d > 0, corresponding to the Pareto-Tsallis statistical weights: these generalize the Boltzmann-Gibbs weight, which is recovered for d = 0. It is shown here how the weights arise, relaxing the thermodynamic equilibrium limit, either for a binomial distribution if d > 0 or for a negative binomial distribution if d < 0, formally corresponding to Fermion-like or Boson-like statistics, respectively. The current status of the phenomenology is illustrated emphasizing case studies; specifically (i) the super-Arrhenius kinetics, where transport phenomena accelerate processes as the temperature increases; (ii) the sub-Arrhenius kinetics, where quantum mechanical tunnelling propitiates low-temperature reactivity; (iii) the anti-Arrhenius kinetics, where processes with no energetic obstacles are rate-limited by molecular reorientation requirements. Particular attention is given for case (i) to the treatment of diffusion and viscosity, for case (ii) to formulation of a transition rate theory for chemical kinetics including quantum mechanical tunnelling, and for case (iii) to the stereodirectional specificity of the dynamics of reactions strongly hindered by the increase of temperature.This article is part of the themed issue 'Theoretical and computational studies of non-equilibrium and non-statistical dynamics in the gas phase, in the condensed phase and at interfaces'.

Thermalization and Thermal Transport in Molecules

The nature and rate of thermal transport through molecular junctions depend on the length over which thermalization occurs. For junctions formed by alkane chains, in which thermalization occurs only slowly, measurements reveal that thermal resistance is controlled by bonding with the substrates, whereas fluorination can introduce thermal resistance within the molecules themselves, although the mechanism remains unclear. Here we present results of quantum-mechanical calculations of elastic and inelastic scattering rates, the length over which thermalization occurs, and thermal conductance in alkane and perfluoroalkane junctions. The contribution to thermalization of quantum effects that give rise to many-body localization (MBL) in isolated molecules is examined. While MBL does not occur due to dephasing, thermalization is typically too slow to establish local temperature if the same molecule in isolation exhibits MBL. The results indicate limitations on the applicability of classical molecular simulations in modeling thermal transport in molecular junctions.

Communication: Length-dependent thermopower of single-molecule junctions

In the present work, we theoretically study the length dependence of thermopower of a single-molecule junction with a chain-like molecular bridge of an arbitrary length using a tight-binding model. We analyze conditions bringing a nonlinear growth of the thermopower accompanying the extension of the bridge length. Also, we show that the thermopower may decrease with increasing molecular length provided that the molecular bridge is sufficiently long.