A hybrid device made from gold nanoparticles connected by alkyldithiol molecules of different lengths was produced and its conduction properties were investigated for various lengths of the organic linker molecules. It was found that the conductivity increases with the length of the molecules. The surprising dependence of the conductivity on the molecules' length was explained by a model that takes into account the probability for forming continuous conductive paths for the different molecules.
Keywords: alkyldithiols; length dependent; molecular electronics; nanoparticles; self-assembled monolayers.