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Molecular electronics

Rectifying current behaviours

Nature Chemistry volume 1, pages 601–603 (2009)Cite this article

Inorganic semiconductors have long been used to construct rectifying diodes, but making them out of single molecules has remained a challenge. Now, two separate studies have induced rectification behaviour within molecular systems through different approaches.

Rectifiers, which allow an electrical current to flow in one bias direction but not in the other, are widely used for a variety of devices. But although efficient rectification in bulk semiconductor materials has been well known and well understood for many years, observations of comparable behaviour in molecular systems is much more recent. Several articles have now reported investigations of such molecular rectifying diodes, and two studies in particular illustrate the significant role of both the molecular structure and the metallic contacts to the molecule.

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Figure 1: Energy-band diagrams for metal/molecule/metal systems, illustrating two different approaches used for rectification.

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  1. David Janes is in the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907-2057, USA. janes@ecn.purdue.edu,

    David Janes

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  1. David Janes
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Janes, D. Rectifying current behaviours. Nature Chem 1, 601–603 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.429

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