Single-molecule electronics: from chemical design to functional devices
Review article, 2014

The use of single molecules in electronics represents the next limit of miniaturisation of electronic devices, which would enable us to continue the trend of aggressive downscaling of silicon-based electronic devices. More significantly, the fabrication, understanding and control of fully functional circuits at the single-molecule level could also open up the possibility of using molecules as devices with novel, not-foreseen functionalities beyond complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology (CMOS). This review aims at highlighting the chemical design and synthesis of single molecule devices as well as their electrical and structural characterization, including a historical overview and the developments during the last 5 years. We discuss experimental techniques for fabrication of single-molecule junctions, the potential application of single-molecule junctions as molecular switches, and general physical phenomena in single-molecule electronic devices.

Author

Lanlan Sun

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering

Yuri A. Diaz Fernandez

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Tina Gschneidtner

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Fredrik Westerlund

Physical Chemistry

Samuel Lara Avila

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Quantum Device Physics

Kasper Moth-Poulsen

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Polymer Technology

Chemical Society Reviews

0306-0012 (ISSN) 1460-4744 (eISSN)

Vol. 43 21 7378-7411

Single Molecule Nano Electronics (SIMONE)

European Commission (EC) (EC/FP7/337221), 2014-02-01 -- 2019-01-31.

Areas of Advance

Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Materials Science

Subject Categories

Chemical Sciences

DOI

10.1039/C4CS00143E

More information

Latest update

3/10/2022