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Electrochemical control of quantum interference in anthraquinone-based molecular switches

Using first-principles calculations we analyze the electronic transport properties of a recently proposed anthraquinone based electrochemical switch. Robust conductance on/off ratios of several orders of magnitude are observed due to destructive quantum interference present in the anthraquinone, but absent in the hydroquinone molecular bridge. A simple explanation of the interference effect is achieved by transforming the frontier molecular orbitals into localized molecular orbitals thereby obtaining a minimal tight-binding model describing the transport in the relevant energy range in terms of hopping via the localized orbitals. The topology of the tight-binding model, which is dictated by the symmetries of the molecular orbitals, determines the amount of quantum interference.