- Authors:
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.046801
- Abstract:
- We study the damping of molecular vibrations due to electron-hole pair excitations in donor-acceptor (D-A) type molecular rectifiers. At finite voltage additional nonequilibrium electron-hole pair excitations involving both electrodes become possible, and contribute to the stimulated emission and absorption of phonons. We point out a generic mechanism for D-A molecules, where the stimulated emission can dominate beyond a certain voltage due to the inverted position of the D and A quantum resonances. This leads to current-driven amplification (negative damping) of the phonons similar to laser action. We investigate the effect in realistic molecular rectifier structures using first-principles calculations.
- Type:
- Journal article
- Language:
- English
- Published in:
- Physical Review Letters, 2011, Vol 107, Issue 4
- Main Research Area:
- Science/technology
- Publication Status:
- Published
- Review type:
- Peer Review
- Submission year:
- 2011
- Scientific Level:
- Scientific
- ID:
- 231946817