Power dissipation in a single molecule junction: Tracking energy levels

Yaghoob Naimi, Javad Vahedi

Published 2014-08-03, updated 2014-12-05Version 2

Motivated by recent work [Lee et al. Nature {\bf 489}, 209 (2013)], on asymmetry features of heat dissipation in the electrodes of molecular junctions, we put forward an idea as a result of heat dissipation in the electrodes. Based on tight-binding model and a generalized Green's function formalism, we describe the conditions under which heat dissipation shows symmetry characteristic and does not depend on the bias polarity. We also show the power dissipated in the junction can be used to detect which energy levels of molecule junction play more or less role in the transmission process. We present this idea by studying a simple toy model and Au-$C_{60}$-Au junction.