Transport Through a Single-Molecule Transistor: Master-Equation Approach

In the present work we employ the master-equation approach to describe the transport through a molecule located in the central region between two external electrodes. In contrast to the transport through a quantum dot, electron-phonon coupling should be taken into account for tunnelling through a molecule. The coupling results in the appearance of additional effects such as vibrational sidebands or, for the case of strong coupling, a suppression of the current at low bias voltage (Franck-Condon blockade). In contrast to previous studies, the transport properties are described by the density matrix calculated explicitly with diagonal and off-diagonal elements. The observed phenomena are discussed and compared to previous studies.