Contactless electronic transport in a bio-molecular junction

Molecular electronics hold promise for next generation ultra-low power, nano-scale integrated electronics. The main challenge in molecular electronics is to make a reliable interface between molecules and metal electrodes. Interfacing metals and molecules detrimentally affects the characteristics of nano-scale molecular electronic devices. It is therefore essential to investigate alternative arrangements such as contact-less tunneling gaps wherever such configurations are feasible. We conduct ab initio density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's functions calculations to investigate the transport properties of a biocompatible glycine molecular junction. By analyzing the localized molecular orbital energy distributions and transmission probabilities in the transport-gap, we find a glycine molecule confined between two gold electrodes, without making a contact, is energetically stable and possesses high tunneling current resembling an excellent ohmic-like interface.