Home > Press > Molecular sudoku: A team of scientists from the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology, ICREA and UAB investigated the properties of a special kind of sudoku, made by assembling tiny molecules into a 3x3 square array
Abstract:
As reported this week in Nature Communications, the researchers used the atomically-sharp tip of a scanning tunneling microscope to move 1-nanometer sized molecules on top of a silver substrate. The tip is controlled with such great accuracy that it is possible to precisely choose the position of each molecule and build tiny molecular squares, crosses, and chains of controlled size and orientation. The same tip is then used as a mobile electrode to probe the electrical conductivity of the molecules as a function of their position in the array. Figures a-d show an example of such measurements: a represent the topography of a "sudoku" molecular cluster, whereas b-d show regions of high conductivity at different voltages. At low voltage, electrons prefer to pass through the corner molecules, whereas at high voltage, only the central molecule is conducting. This is so because the conductivity depends strongly on a small set of electronic states, which conduct electricity to the substrate, and these are modified by the presence of side-to-side neighbors.
The molecular conductance was found to vary strongly not only from one molecule to another, but also within each molecule, due to the possibility of exploiting different electron transport channels at different positions. Such conduction channels arise from the excitation of internal degrees of freedom of the molecules, such as atomic vibrations and magnetic coupling of the electronic spins. All together, these results demonstrate the intricacy and beauty of molecular electronics, providing a glimpse of its advantages, such as the fabrication of versatile miniaturized circuits, and challenges, which may prove harder to solve than a sudoku game.
Spin coupling and relaxation inside molecule-metal contacts
Aitor Mugarza1,2*, Cornelius Krull1,2, Roberto Robles2, Sebastian Stepanow1,2, Gustavo Ceballos1,2, Pietro Gambardella1,2,3,4
1 Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology (ICN), UAB Campus, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain
2 Centre d'Investigacions en Nanocičncia i Nanotecnologia (CIN2), UAB Campus, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain
3 Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA)
4 Departament de Física, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, E-08193 Barcelona, Spain
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms1497
On-line versión will be published 4 October de 2011 a las 18:00 horas
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Pietro Gambardella
Copyright © Institut Catalŕ de Nanotecnologia
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related News Press |
News and information
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Molecular Nanotechnology
Scientists push the boundaries of manipulating light at the submicroscopic level March 3rd, 2023
First electric nanomotor made from DNA material: Synthetic rotary motors at the nanoscale perform mechanical work July 22nd, 2022
Nanotech scientists create world's smallest origami bird March 17th, 2021
Announcements
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Tools
Ferroelectrically modulate the Fermi level of graphene oxide to enhance SERS response November 3rd, 2023
The USTC realizes In situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy using single nanodiamond sensors November 3rd, 2023
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
Premium Products | ||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||