Abstract

The semiconductor industry has seen a remarkable miniaturization trend, driven by many scientific and technological innovations. But if this trend is to continue, and provide ever faster and cheaper computers, the size of microelectronic circuit components will soon need to reach the scale of atoms or molecules—a goal that will require conceptually new device structures. The idea that a few molecules, or even a single molecule, could be embedded between electrodes and perform the basic functions of digital electronics—rectification, amplification and storage—was first put forward in the mid-1970s. The concept is now realized for individual components, but the economic fabrication of complete circuits at the molecular level remains challenging because of the difficulty of connecting molecules to one another. A possible solution to this problem is 'mono-molecular' electronics, in which a single molecule will integrate the elementary functions and interconnections required for computation.

1. Centre d'Elaboration de Matériaux et d'Etudes Structurales–Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique , 29 rue J. Marvig, 31055 Toulouse Cedex, France
2. IBM Research, Zurich Research Laboratory , 8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland
3. IBM Research, T. J. Watson Research Center, Route 134, Yorktown Heights, New York 10598, USA

Correspondence to: C. Joachim¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to C. J. (e-mail: Email: joachim@cemes.fr).