A physically realizable molecular motor driven by the Landauer blowtorch effect

Preston, Riley J.;Kosov, Daniel S.

Abstract

We propose a model for a molecular motor in a molecular electronic junction driven by a natural manifestation of Landauer’s blowtorch effect. The effect emerges via the interplay of electronic friction and diffusion coefficients, each calculated quantum mechanically using nonequilibrium Green’s functions, within a semiclassical Langevin description of the rotational dynamics. The motor functionality is analyzed through numerical simulations where the rotations exhibit a directional preference according to the intrinsic geometry of the molecular configuration. The proposed mechanism for motor function is expected to be ubiquitous for a range of molecular geometries beyond the one examined here.

Journal

Journal of Chemical Physics

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158

ISBN/ISSN

1089-7690

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Publisher

American Institute of Physics

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DOI

10.1063/5.0153000