Articles you may be interested inInvestigation of inelastic electron tunneling spectra of metal-molecule-metal junctions fabricated using direct metal transfer method Appl. Phys. Lett. 106, 063110 (2015); 10.1063/1.4908185High integrity metal/organic device interfaces via low temperature buffer layer assisted metal atom nucleation A nanowell device for the electrical characterization of metal-molecule-metal junctions was built using readily available processing tools and techniques. This device consisted of a nanoscale well, with a gold bottom, filled with a self-assembling monolayer of organic molecules, and capped with titanium and gold. Focused ion beam technology was used to fabricate the well with a width less than the grain size of gold. This nanowell improved the device performance dramatically by reducing the chances of pinhole formation in the self-assembling monolayer on the bottom gold electrode. Unlike some established characterization techniques, including conducting probe atomic force microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy, the nanowell device has the potential for future circuit integration. The effectiveness of the device was confirmed by testing I -V characteristics of alkanethiols and oligomeric arylthiols. The alkanethiol current was exponentially dependent on chain length with a decay factor ͑␤͒ that ranged from 0.7 to 0.75/ Å with the applied voltages of 0.1-1.0 V. Additionally, we gained new insight into the electrical behavior of an oligo͑phenylene-ethynylene͒ molecule with a nitro side group. In this work, we present the complete I -V characteristics observed from the nitro molecule showing electrical switching with memory. Unlike previous reports, we did not observe any reversible negative differential resistance. However, the observed switching with memory behavior may have potential applications in logic and memory devices.

[structure: see text]. The optically active molecular electronic wires (S)- and (R)-7 containing an oligo-arylene-ethynylene structure and a chiral 1,1'-binaphthyl unit are synthesized. These molecules are incorporated into nanowell devices by self-assembly on the gold surface. In the nanowell devices, the median currents from the molecules containing both S and R enantiomers are significantly smaller than those from the pure S or R molecule. Compounds (R)- and (S)-7 are also less conductive than the fully conjugated oligo-phenylene-ethynylene-thiol molecules.

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Concerned by the wall that Moore's Law is expected to hit in the next decade, the integrated circuit community is turning to emerging nanotechnologies for continued device improvements. While significant advancements in nanotechnology devices have been achieved, much work is required to integrate these technologies into the existing design methodologies. Given that the physical design paradigm of each nanotechnology will be significantly different than that of traditional silicon circuits, the underlying cost functions used in optimization algorithms throughout the design abstraction hierarchy must be altered. Because nanotechnologies are not as well developed and understood as silicon devices, abstraction will initially result in less accurate models. However, if models are developed and augmented as nanotechnologies continue to evolve, the transition from CMOS-based design to nano-based design will be relatively seamless. This paper details the logic-level abstraction process for area minimization for one promising nanotechnology -quantum cellular automata (QCA). The model abstracts relative area costs, including interconnect area, for QCA devices, and it is integrated within existing multi-level logic synthesis techniques. Results validate the proposed approach of designing nano-based circuits with the traditional abstraction-based design methodology.