Home > Press > Molecular electronics scientists shatter 'impossible' record
Abstract:
An international research team that includes University of Central Florida Professor Enrique del Barco, Damien Thompson of the University of Limerick and Christian A. Nijhuis of the National University of Singapore has cracked an important limitation that for nearly 20 years has prevented the practical use of molecular diodes.
Electrical circuits are the basic building blocks of modern electronics, with components that control the flow of current. One of those components is the diode, which allows the flow of current in a one direction while blocking the opposite flow.
The circuits that are ubiquitous in electronic devices the world over are silicon-based. But scientists have long been trying to duplicate the capabilities of silicon-based circuitry at the molecular level. Molecular electronics use single molecules or nanoscale collections of single molecules as electronic components. That would allow the unprecedented miniaturization of computers and other electronics.
Diodes are characterized by their rectification ratio, which is the rate between current for positive and negative electrical bias. The rectification ratios of commercial silicon-based diodes have rectification ratios between 10^5 and 10^8.
The higher the rectification rate, the more precise the control of current. So, for nearly 20 years without success, researchers have been trying to design molecular diodes that match or exceed that rectification ratio. A fundamental theoretical limitation of a single molecule had limited molecular diodes to rectification ratios no higher than 10^3 -- far from the commercial values of silicon-based diodes.
Now, as reported Monday in the scholarly journal Nature Nanotechnology, a team of scientists led by Nijhuis has demonstrated a way to reach a rectification ratio that had been thought a theoretical impossibility.
The researchers were able to form macroscale tunnel junctions based on a single layer of molecular diodes. The number of molecules conducting current in those junctions changes with the bias polarity, thus multiplying the intrinsic rectification ratio of an individual molecule for forward bias by three orders of magnitude. Their method overcame the 10^3 limitation, resulting in a record-high rectification ratio of 6.3 x 10^5.
"It surpassed that limit imposed by theory. Definitively, you now have a molecular diode that responds comparably to silicon-based diodes," said del Barco, a physicist who interpreted the data and performed the theoretical modeling that explained how it works. "It moves something that was only science into a commercial possibility."
The breakthrough isn't likely to replace silicon diodes, but could eventually bring about the use of molecular diodes for applications that silicon diodes can't handle. And molecular diodes, which can be produced in a chemistry lab, would be cheaper and easier to fabricate than standard diodes.
###
In addition to del Barco, Thompson and Nijhuis, the research team included Xiaoping Chen, Max Roemer, Li Yuan, and Wei Du, all of the National University of Singapore.
The research was funded through support from Singapore's Ministry of Education, Science Foundation Ireland and the National Science Foundation.
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Mark Schlueb
407-823-0221
Copyright © University of Central Florida
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 Links |
Related News Press |
News and information
Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024
Hardware
The present and future of computing get a boost from new research July 21st, 2023
A Carbon Nanotube Microprocessor Mature Enough to Say Hello: Three new breakthroughs make commercial nanotube processors possible March 2nd, 2020
Powering the future: Smallest all-digital circuit opens doors to 5 nm next-gen semiconductor February 11th, 2020
Govt.-Legislation/Regulation/Funding/Policy
What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024
Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024
Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024
Possible Futures
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Chip Technology
New chip opens door to AI computing at light speed February 16th, 2024
HKUST researchers develop new integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V and silicon February 16th, 2024
NRL discovers two-dimensional waveguides February 16th, 2024
Nanoelectronics
Interdisciplinary: Rice team tackles the future of semiconductors Multiferroics could be the key to ultralow-energy computing October 6th, 2023
Key element for a scalable quantum computer: Physicists from Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University demonstrate electron transport on a quantum chip September 23rd, 2022
Reduced power consumption in semiconductor devices September 23rd, 2022
Atomic level deposition to extend Moore’s law and beyond July 15th, 2022
Discoveries
What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024
Researchers’ approach may protect quantum computers from attacks March 8th, 2024
High-tech 'paint' could spare patients repeated surgeries March 8th, 2024
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Announcements
What heat can tell us about battery chemistry: using the Peltier effect to study lithium-ion cells March 8th, 2024
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Grants/Sponsored Research/Awards/Scholarships/Gifts/Contests/Honors/Records
'Sudden death' of quantum fluctuations defies current theories of superconductivity: Study challenges the conventional wisdom of superconducting quantum transitions January 12th, 2024
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 |
||