9503399 Ratner This U.S.-Venezuela Cooperative Science Program award will fund a collaboration between Dr. Mark A. Ratner, Northwestern University, Evanston, and Dr. Vadimiro Mujica, Universidad Central de Venezuela, on theoretical approaches to interfacial electron transfers. The research will be on formal and numerical investigations of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) currents in systems comprising metal substrate, adsorbed molecule, and STM tip. The approach considers the time-dependent behavior of the system, with the electron moving from metal through molecule to tip. The study will include electro/vibration interactions, electron/electron repulsion, and complex molecular geometry coupling, and will focus on the overall dynamics of the process, and the calculation of the conductance and its variations. The research is timely and important, both from the fundamental knowledge and the technological point of view. The expertise and resources of the collaborators are complementary. Studies will be carried out with sufficiently realistic molecular detail allowing meaningful comparison with experimental data, thus providing valuable perspectives about the interrelationship of conductance, conductivity, and super-exchange-mediated donor-acceptance. ***
