As consumer electronics rapidly decrease in size, there is a need to fabricate ever smaller electronic components, with devices based on single molecules as the ultimate miniaturization limit. Despite impressive progress, targeted materials design for molecular-scale electronics is at present still challenging. In order to overcome this barrier, the research team investigates current flow and electronic properties probed in the single molecule limit and through newly developed organic molecules. The molecules and new experimental approaches are designed to elucidate ways in which the function and properties of devices operating at the single molecule limit, such as transistors, diodes and sensors, can be tailored and optimized. The project establishes design rules for developing next-generation electronics that far exceed current miniaturization approaches. The research program trains graduate and undergraduate scholars, including women and those from underrepresented minorities, in interdisciplinary areas of materials science. Additionally, community college students from rural Arizona are integrated in the cutting-edge research by creating a publically available database and graphical poster displays of emerging molecular design rules for molecular-scale electronics.
re is an urgent need to miniaturize electronic circuits to the molecule-scale limit, and to develop functionalities beyond Si-based electronics. Molecular electronics aims to tackle this challenge by harnessing the synthetic richness of organic molecules and integrating them into molecular-sized devices. Currently missing however is a detailed understanding of the electronic structure of molecules attached to electrodes, at the nanoscale, under bias and out of equilibrium. Using single molecule breakjunction measurements, the research team addresses this issue by first developing new molecular designs that create highly defined junctions. It then systematically varies molecular properties to tailor changes to the energy levels and wavefunction of the combined contact-molecule-contact system. Finally, it advances new approaches to spectroscopically access the electronic structure in the single molecule junction. The principal investigators synergistically combine synthesis of new materials, highly sensitive measurements of transport in single molecules, and advanced statistical analysis methods. The project establishes the molecular-level understanding needed to push new electronic technologies to the ultimate size-limit. By training the next generation of materials scientists, including women and students from underrepresented minorities, and by integrating community college students from rural Arizona in cutting-edge research, the research team develops the next generation of leaders in materials science.
