Current Applied Physics, Vol.2, No.1, 39-45, 2002
Molecular wires and gold nanoparticles as molewares for the molecular scale electronics
The continuing shrinkage of the feature sizes in microelectronics requests the use of nanolithographic technology that causes the exponential increase of cost in building the fabrication facility. Molecules can be synthesized in precisely controlled way to have nano-structures in large quantities utilizing molecules as electronic components in the nanoelectronic circuitry may be one promising alternative of manufacturing high density chips in more affordable prices. The molecular scale electronics research has shown that molecules can be good conductors and molecular switch can be used succesfully to modulate the flow of electrons. Some of the recent progresses in molecular scale electronics are reviewed and the use of modified gold nanoparticles to assemble the devices is introduced. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.