Single molecule conductance
A central challenge of molecular nanoelectronics is to fabricate molecules that can replace, or at least augment, present Si-based technology to function as interconnects, switches, transistors or more complex devices.
If a molecular assembly can be made sufficiently complex to integrate more than one device function, then entirely new nanoelectronic functionalities might open up.
The unique properties of porphyrin-based molecular nanowires make it interesting for molecular nanoelectronics. With colleagues at Oxford University (Harry Anderson group) who synthesise conjugated porphyrin oligomers with controlled length and functionality, and at Liverpool University (Richard Nichols and Simon Higgins) we have measured electrical properties of both porphyrin-based molecular nanowires and other molecules, using scanning tunnelling microscopy.
Publications
- Sedghi, G. et al., 2011. Long-range electron tunnelling in oligo-porphyrin molecular wires. Nature Nanotechnology 6 (8), pp.517-523. (10.1038/nnano.2011.111)
- Bennett, N. et al. 2010. Transition voltage spectroscopy of porphyrin molecular wires. Small 6 (22), pp.2604-2611. (10.1002/smll.201001046)