Thermal spin molecular logic gates modulated by an electric field

Logic gates are fundamental structural components in all modern digital electronic devices. Here, nonequilibrium Green's functions are incorporated with the density functional theory to verify the thermal spin transport features of the single-molecule spintronic devices constructed by a single molecule in series or parallel connected with graphene nanoribbons electrodes. Our calculations demonstrate that the electric field can manipulate the spin-polarized current. Then, a complete set of thermal spin molecular logic gates are proposed, including AND, OR, and NOT gates. The mentioned logic gates enable different designs of complex thermal spin molecular logic functions and facilitate the electric field control of thermal spin molecular devices.

Theoretical design of thermal spin molecular logic gates by using a combinational molecular junction

Based on the density functional theory combined with the nonequilibrium Green function methodology,we have studied the thermally-driven spin-dependent transport properties of a combinational molecular junction consisting of a planar four-coordinate Fe molecule and a 15,16-dinitrile dihydropyrene/cyclophanediene molecule,with single-walled carbon nanotube bridge and electrode.Our results show that the magnetic field and light can effectively regulate the thermallydriven spin-dependent currents.Perfect thermal spin-filtering effect and good thermal switching effect are realized.The results are explained by the Fermi-Dirac distribution function,the spin-resolved transmission spectra,the spatial distribution of molecular projected self-consistent Hamiltonian orbitals,and the spin-resolved current spectra.On the basis of these thermally-driven spin-dependent transport properties,we have further designed three basic thermal spin molecular AND,OR,and NOT gates.

Theoretical design of single-molecule NOR and XNOR logic gates by using transition metal dibenzotetraaza[14]annulenes

The idea of replacing traditional silicon-based electronic components with the ones assembled by organic molecules to further scale down the electric circuits has been attracting extensive research focuses.Among the molecularly assembled components,the design of molecular logic gates with simple structure and high Boolean computing speed remains a great challenge.Here,by using the state-of-the-art nonequilibrium Green’s function theory in conjugation with first-principles method,the spin transport properties of single-molecule junctions comprised of two serially connected transition metal dibenzotetraaza[14]annulenes(TM(DBTAA),TM=Fe,Co)sandwiched between two single-walled carbon nanotube electrodes are theoretically investigated.The numerical results show a close dependence of the spin-resolved current-voltage characteristics on spin configurations between the left and right molecular kernels and the kind of TM atom in TM(DBTAA)molecule.By taking advantage of spin degree of freedom of electrons,NOR or XNOR Boolean logic gates can be realized in Fe(DBTAA)and Co(DBTAA)junctions depending on the definitions of input and output signals.This work proposes a new kind of molecular logic gates and hence is helpful for further miniaturization of the electric circuits.

Lineal DNA logic gate for microRNA diagnostics with strand displacement and fluorescence resonance energy transfer

Designing molecular logic gates to operate programmably for molecular diagnostics in molecular computing still remains challenging.Here,we designed a novel linear DNA logic gates for microRNA analysis based on strand displacement and fluorescence resonance energy transfer（FRET）.Two labeled strands closed each other produce to FRET through hybridization with a complementary strand to form a basic work unit of logic gate.Two indicators of heart failure（microRNA-195 and microRNA-21） were selected as the logic inputs and the fluorescence mode was used as the logic output.We have demonstrated that the molecular logic gate mechanism worked well with the construction of YES and AND gates.