Team demonstrates molecular electronics sensors on a semiconductor chip

Phys.com  January 25, 2022 A team of researchers in the US (industry, UC San Diego, Rice University, Harvard University) has developed a molecular electronics platform which consists of a programmable semiconductor chip with a scalable sensor array architecture. Each array element consists of an electrical current meter that monitors the current flowing through a precision-engineered molecular wire, assembled to span nanoelectrodes that couple it directly into the circuit. The sensor is programmed by attaching the desired probe molecule to the molecular wire, via a central, engineered conjugation site. The observed current provides a direct, real-time electronic readout of molecular interactions […]

Towards self-restoring electronic devices with long DNA molecules

Science Daily  November 2, 2021 single-molecule conductance falls off sharply with the length of the molecule so that only extremely short stretches of DNA are useful for electrical measurements. Researchers in Japan achieved an unconventionally high conductivity with a long DNA molecule-based junction in a “zipper” configuration that also shows a remarkable self-restoring ability under electrical failure. The team used a 10-mer and a 90-mer DNA strand to form a zipper-like structure and attached them to either a gold surface or to the metal tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. The separation between the tip and the surface constituted the […]

A review of single molecule-based electronic devices

Eurekalert  November 21, 2019 At present traditional electronic devices based on semiconductor materials are facing technical, technological limitations and theoretical limitations. Single molecule electronic devices are considered one of the most hopeful candidates. Researchers in China provide an overview of single molecule electronic devices, including molecular electronic devices and electrode types. Several molecular electronic devices are presented, including molecular diodes, molecular memories, molecular wires, molecular field effect transistors (FET) and molecular switches. The influence of different electrode types of the transport characteristics and other characteristics of molecular devices are briefly introduced, such as potential thermoelectric effects. The future challenges to […]

Quantum strangeness gives rise to new electronics

Eurekalert  February 11, 2019 An international team of researchers (USA – Arizona State University, Japan, China, UK) explored the charge transport properties through the molecules. They demonstrated that quantum interference can be precisely modulated in two different configurations of the molecule, known as Para and Meta. It turns out that quantum interference effects can cause substantial variation in the conductance properties of molecule-scale devices. By controlling the quantum interference, the group showed that electrical conductance of a single molecule can be fine-tuned over two orders of magnitude. The research shows that the field of molecular electronics is open to a […]

The feature size and functional range of molecular electronic devices

Eurekalert   December 14, 2018 Knowing the feature size of the domination of tunneling leakage in molecular electronics is of fundamental significance, which enhances the understanding of the technical limitations and boundaries for using single-molecule components as electronic devices. An international team of researchers (China, UK, Switzerland) investigated the transition distance between through-space tunneling and molecular tunneling using the oligo(aryleneethynylene) molecules. They demonstrated that molecular tunneling can be distinguished and outstripped from the tunneling leakage down to the size of 0.66 nm, suggesting the potential to push the miniaturization limit of molecular electronic devices to the angstrom scale…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE 

Environment turns molecule into a switch

Phys.org  November 26, 2018 An international team of researchers (Germany, Spain) used a manganese phthalocyanine molecule, which cannot be normally switched, and mounted it on a metallic surface built of silver and bismuth atoms. When a very fine tip emitting an electric field approached the manganese atom at the centre of the molecule, the molecule took on two stable switchable states. They demonstrated that this functionality can also be created in non-switchable molecules by selectively manipulating the molecule’s environment developing a new concept to build molecular switches which may open new design possibilities in molecular electronics in the future…read more. […]