Electron-phonon scattering in molecular electronics: from inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy to heating effects

In this paper, we investigate dissipation in molecular electronic devices. Dissipation is a crucial quantity which determines the stability and heating of the junction. Moreover, several experimental techniques which use inelastically scattered electrons as probes to investigate the geometry in the junction are becoming fundamental in the field. In order to describe such physical effects, a non-equilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method was implemented to include scattering events between electrons and molecular vibrations in current simulations. It is well known that the final heating of the molecule depends also on the ability of the molecule to relax vibrational quanta into the contact reservoirs. A semi-classical rate equation has been implemented and integrated within the NEGF formalism to include this relaxation. The model is based on two quantities: (i) the rate of emission of phonons in the junction by electron-phonon scattering and (ii) a microscopic approach for the computation of the phonon decay rate, accounting for the dynamical coupling between the vibrational modes localized on the molecule and the contact phonons. The method is applied to investigate inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy (IETS) signals in CO molecules on Cu(110) substrates as well as dissipation in C-60 molecules on Cu(110) and Si(100) surfaces. It is found that the mechanisms of energy relaxation are highly mode-specific and depend crucially on the lead electronic structure and junction geometry.