Tags: molecular electronics

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In 1959, physicist Richard Feynman presented an amazing talk entitled There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom, in which he proposed making very small circuits out of molecules. More than forty years later, people are starting to realize his vision. Thanks to Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) probes and "self-assembly" fabrication techniques, it is now possible to connect electrodes to a molecule and measure its conductance. In 2004, Mark Hersam et al. reported the first experimental measurement of a molecular resonant tunneling device on silicon. This new field of Molecular Electronics may someday provide the means to miniaturize circuits beyond the limits of silicon, keeping Moore's Law in force for many years to come.

Learn more about molecular electronics from the resources on this site, listed below. More information on Molecular electronics can be found here.

Papers (1-4 of 4)

  1. Electrical Resistance: an Atomistic View

    out of 5 stars 

    26 Oct 2006 | | Contributor(s):: Supriyo Datta

    This tutorial article presents a “bottom-up” view of electrical resistance starting from something really small, like a molecule, and then discussing the issues that arise as we move to bigger conductors. Remark ably enough, no serious quantum mechanics is needed to understand electrical...

  2. Notes on the Ballistic MOSFET

    out of 5 stars 

    08 Oct 2005 | | Contributor(s):: Mark Lundstrom

    When analyzing semiconductor devices, the traditional approach is to assume that carriers scatter frequently from ionized impurities, phonons, surface roughness, etc. so that the average distance between scattering events (the so-called mean-free-path, λ) is much shorter than the device. When...

  3. Electrical Conduction through Molecules

    out of 5 stars 

    08 Jul 2003 | | Contributor(s):: Ferdows Zahid, Magnus Paulsson, Supriyo Datta

    In recent years, several experimental groups have reported measurements of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of individual or small numbers of molecules. Even three-terminal measurements showing evidence of transistor action has been reported using carbon nanotubes as well as...

  4. Resistance of a Molecule

    out of 5 stars 

    29 Apr 2003 | | Contributor(s):: Magnus Paulsson, Ferdows Zahid, Supriyo Datta

    In recent years, several experimental groups have reported measurements of the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of individual or small numbers of molecules. Even three-terminal measurements showing evidence of transistor action has been reported using carbon nanotubes [1, 2] as well as...