Quantum Transport Through Carbon Nanotubes Functionalized With Antiferromagnetic Molecules

The subject of this thesis is to study the interaction between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and antiferromagnetic tetrametallic molecules attached to them. By employing quantum transport measurements, the sensitivity to sense the interactions is greatly increased, because the quantum dot is very susceptible to changes in its environment. The properties of carbon nanotubes can be altered by chemical functionalization with the aforementioned molecules, where the attachment is performed covalently via a ligand exchange with the CNT. The thesis is partitioned into two main parts: the first part presents experiments performed on tetramanganese functionalized CNTs, whereas for the second similar studies are conducted, except manganese is replaced by cobalt. Both complexes exhibit an antiferromagnetic ground state, yet the metal spin of manganese (S=5/2) is reduced to S=3/2 for cobalt. Additionally, an altered device preparation has been employed during the second part, leading to a strong suppression of the background signal. Quantum transport measurements at T=4K on manganese-functionalized CNTs show a very regular pattern of Coulomb diamonds, indicating only a mild disturbance of the quantum dot's electron system by the covalent bond. Moreover, the charging energy reveals a wave function extending over the entire device dimensions. However, at T=30mK in the tunneling current a strong noise emerges, when repeatedly measuring over an hour while keeping external biases constant. Additionally, these time traces are superimposed by a long-term background, which is removed by a correction algorithm plus a subsequent digitization. The remaining signal reveals a random telegraph signal (RTS) which is extensively studied and from its statistics the equivalent temperature of T=654mK for the excitation of the system is extracted. The quantum transport experiments conducted on cobalt-functionalized CNTs show a much better data quality of the coulomb diamonds, which is ascribed to the alteration in the device's preparation. From the line shape of the Coulomb oscillations as well as from the Coulomb staircases an electron temperature of about T=500mK is extracted. Moreover, a magnetic field dependence of the stability diagrams is apparent, attributable to Zeeman splitting. The respective Landé factor of g=1.73 is, compared to similar CNT quantum dot systems, unusually low. It is as attributed to an increased spin-orbit interaction between the conduction electrons and the cobalt's nuclei. The respective time traces exhibit or lack an RTS signal, depending on their external biases. Regarding the Coulomb diamonds, an essential prerequisite for the occurrence of an RTS is the proximity to a resonance, which is equatable to a high sensitivity of the quantum dot detector. Considering the available energy, the underlying process that is the cause for the emergence of the RTS is ascertained to be an internal excitation of the antiferromagnetic states of the metallic core