Negative differential resistance (NDR) in similar molecules with distinct redox behaviour

The transport characterization of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) based on the closed and open-shell forms of a fully conjugated polychlorotrimethylphenyl (PTM) derivative hybridized with the gold substrate reveals that both systems exhibit negative differential resistance (NDR) in their I-V curves which was attributed to similar resonant tunnelling with unoccupied molecular orbitals. This work demonstrates that distinct transport mechanisms can dominate depending on the bias-voltage applied and shows that NDR processes are not influenced here by the redox character of the molecules.