  We present first principles calculations of current-voltage characteristics
(IVC) and conductance of Au(111):S2-cumulene-S2:Au(111) molecular wire
junctions with realistic contacts. The transport properties are calculated
using full self-consistent ab initio NEGF-DFT methods under external bias. The
conductance of the cumulene wires shows oscillatory behavior depending on the
number of carbon atoms (double bonds). Among all conjugated oligomers, we find
that cumulene wires with odd number of carbon atoms yield the highest
conductance with metallic-like ballistic transport behavior. The reason is the
high density of states in broad LUMO levels spanning the Fermi level of the
electrodes. The transmission spectrum and the conductance depend only weakly on
applied bias, and the IVC is nearly linear over a bias region from +1 to -1 V.
Cumulene wires are therefore potential candidates for metallic connections in
nanoelectronic applications.
