Viable Single-Molecule Diodes
Major milestone in molecular electronics scored by Molecular Foundry and Columbia University team.
The Science
Benefiting from the Molecular Foundry’s expertise in molecular modeling, researchers have designed a new technique to create single-molecule diodes that perform 50 times better than all prior designs.
The Impact
Individual molecules represent the gold standard for electronics miniaturization, which leads to improved performance, greater utility and lower costs.
Summary
A collaborative team of researchers, including Foundry Director Jeff Neaton and users from Columbia University led by Latha Venkataraman, have designed a new technique to create single-molecule diodes that perform 50 times better than all prior designs. With electronic devices becoming smaller every day, the field of molecular electronics has become ever more critical in solving the problem of further miniaturization, and single molecules represent the limit of miniaturization. A diode is a fundamental building block of integrated circuits that acts as an electricity valve. A diode must be asymmetric so that electricity flowing in one direction experiences a different environment than electricity flowing in the other. Single-molecule diodes have been demonstrated but have suffered from very low current flow and low current flow asymmetry. Instead of using an asymmetric molecule, the team improved performance by 50 times by creating asymmetry in the molecule’s environment: an ionic solution and gold metal electrodes of different sizes.
Contact
Jeffrey Neaton
Molecular Foundry, LBNL
jbneaton@lbl.gov
(510) 486-4527
Funding
The experimental work was supported primarily by the National Science Foundation (award no. DMR-1206202). E.J.D. acknowledges the HHMI, the American Australian Association and Dow Chemical Company for International Research Fellowships. The computational work was supported by the Molecular Foundry, and by the Materials Sciences and Engineering Division (Theory FWP), US Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences (contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231). Portions of the computation work were performed at National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. O.A. acknowledges support from the NSF (award no. DMR-1122594). L.V. thanks the Packard Foundation for support.
Publications
B. Capozzi, J. Xia, O. Adak, E. J. Dell, Z. F. Liu, J. C.Taylor, J. B. Neaton, L. M. Campos & L. Venkataraman. Nat Nanotechnol. 2015 10 (6), 522. [DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2015.97]
Related Links
Columbia University Press Release
Highlight Categories
Performer: University , DOE Laboratory , SC User Facilities , ASCR User Facilities , NERSC , BES User Facilities , Foundry
