Advances in Molecular Electronics:A Brief Review

The field of molecular electronics,also known as moletronics,deals with the assembly of molecular electronic components using molecules as the building blocks.It is an interdisciplinary field that includes physics,chemistry,materials science,and engineering.Moletronics mainly deals with the reduction of size of silicon components.Novel research has been performed in developing electrical-equivalent molecular components.Moletronics has established its influence in electronic and photonic applications,such as conducting polymers,photochromics,organic superconductors,electrochromics,and many more.Since there is a need to reduce the size of the silicon chip,attaining such technology at the molecular level is essential.Although the experimental verification and modeling of molecular devices present a daunting task,vital breakthroughs have been achieved in this field.This article combines an overview of various molecular components,such as molecular transistors,diodes,capacitors,wires,and insulators,with a discussion of the potential applications of different molecules suitable for such components.We emphasize future developments and provide a brief review of different achievements that have been made regarding graphene-based molecular devices.

Periodic energy decomposition analysis for electronic transport studies as a tool for atomic scale device manufacturing

Atomic scale manufacturing is a necessity of the future to develop atomic scale devices with high precision.A different perspective of the quantum realm,which includes the tunnelling effect,leakage current at the atomic-scale,Coulomb blockade and Kondo effect,is inevitable for the fabrication and hence,the mass production of these devices.For these atomic-scale device development,molecular level devices must be fabricated.Proper theoretical studies could be an aid towards the experimental realities.Electronic transport studies are the basis to realise and interpret the problems happening at this minute scale.Keeping these in mind,we present a periodic energy decomposition analysis(pEDA)of two potential candidates for moletronics:phthalocyanines and porphyrins,by placing them over gold substrate cleaved at the(111)plane to study the adsorption and interaction at the interface and then,to study their application as a channel between two electrodes,thereby,providing a link between pEDA and electronic transport studies.pEDA provides information regarding the bond strength and the contribution of electrostatic energy,Pauli’s energy,orbital energy and the orbital interactions.Combining this analysis with electronic transport studies can provide novel directions for atomic/close-toatomic-scale manufacturing(ACSM).Literature survey shows that this is the first work which establishes a link between pEDA and electronic transport studies and a detailed pEDA study on the above stated molecules.The results show that among the molecules studied,porphyrins are more adsorbable over gold substrate and conducting across a molecular junction than phthalocyanines,even though both molecules show a similarity in adsorption and conduction when a terminal thiol linker is attached.A further observation establishes the importance of attractive terms,which includes interaction,orbital and electrostatic energies,in correlating the pEDA study with the transport properties.By progressing this research,further developments could be possible in atomic-scale manufacturing in the future.