The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan.
Sensors (Basel). 2012;12(6):7259-98. doi: 10.3390/s120607259. Epub 2012 May 30.
The manufacture of integrated circuits with single-molecule building blocks is a goal of molecular electronics. While research in the past has been limited to bulk experiments on self-assembled monolayers, advances in technology have now enabled us to fabricate single-molecule junctions. This has led to significant progress in understanding electron transport in molecular systems at the single-molecule level and the concomitant emergence of new device concepts. Here, we review recent developments in this field. We summarize the methods currently used to form metal-molecule-metal structures and some single-molecule techniques essential for characterizing molecular junctions such as inelastic electron tunnelling spectroscopy. We then highlight several important achievements, including demonstration of single-molecule diodes, transistors, and switches that make use of electrical, photo, and mechanical stimulation to control the electron transport. We also discuss intriguing issues to be addressed further in the future such as heat and thermoelectric transport in an individual molecule.
用单分子构建块制造集成电路是分子电子学的目标。虽然过去的研究仅限于自组装单层的批量实验，但技术的进步现在使我们能够制造单分子结。这导致在单分子水平上理解分子系统中的电子输运方面取得了重大进展，并随之出现了新的器件概念。在这里，我们回顾了这一领域的最新进展。我们总结了目前用于形成金属-分子-金属结构的方法，以及一些对于表征分子结至关重要的单分子技术，如非弹性电子隧穿光谱。然后，我们强调了一些重要的成就，包括演示了单分子二极管、晶体管和开关，它们利用电、光和机械刺激来控制电子输运。我们还讨论了未来需要进一步解决的有趣问题，例如单个分子中的热和热电输运。
