Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Nanotechnology

A quantum leap for electronics

Nature volume 394, pages 131–132 (1998)Cite this article

By pushing devices to such an extreme, novel quantum phenomena — such as single-electron charging effects2,3, or energy-level or conductance quantization2,3 — might readily be exploited near room temperature (at present, in devices orders of magnitude larger, such phenomena are manifest only at millikelvin temperatures). And molecule-based technology may yield ultrafast, ultrasensitive hybridized devices based on materials other than traditional semiconductors or superconductors.

Already, a single C60molecule has been operated as an amplifier4, and a single carbon nanotube has been used to make a transistor that works at room temperature5. With a whole new class of electronic devices based on single atoms or molecules entirely within our technological reach, it is an exciting time for physics, engineering, material science, chemistry and even molecular biology. Gradually emerging from this excitement is a new field: molecular electronics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: The shrinkage of electronic components.

LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES, BELL LABS/L. KOUWENHOVEN/IBM

References

  1. Scheer, E. et al. Nature 394, 154–157 (1998).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Grabert, H. & Devoret, M. H. (eds) Single Charge Tunneling (Plenum, New York, 1992).

  3. Sohn, L. L., Kouwenhoven, L. P. & Schön, G. (eds) Mesoscopic Electron Transport (Kluwer, Boston, 1997).

  4. Joachim, C. & Gimzewski, J. M. Chem. Phys. Lett. 265, 353–357 (1997).

    Google Scholar 

  5. Tans, S. J. et al. Nature 386, 474–477 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Crommie, M. F., Lutz, C. P. & Eigler, D. M. Science 262, 218–220 (1993).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, 08544, New Jersey, USA

    Lydia L. Sohn

Authors
  1. Lydia L. Sohn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sohn, L. A quantum leap for electronics. Nature 394, 131–132 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/28058

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/28058

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing