THURSDAY 09:00
SPIN WAVES - A FINE PROBE FOR ITINERANT FERROMAGNETISM, AND AN ALTERNATIVE FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICES
Santiago Martin
Universidad de Zaragoza, España
ABSTRACT
Molecular electronics, in which a single molecule or a single layer of molecules is oriented between two immobile electrodes to create a nascent, nanometer-sized device which harnesses the electrical properties of the molecular component is an exciting area of science and an emerging technology base. The use of functional molecules capable of working as molecular wires, rectifiers, molecular switches, etc. may provide many benefits to the electronic industry including the overcoming of the difficulties associated with top-down scaling of conventional silicon technology and provide new avenues to increase device density by a factor of several orders of magnitude compared to today’s state of the art, as well as the introduction of new chemically derived functionalities and electronic properties due to the quantum effects that appear at the scale of atoms and molecules.
The field of molecular electronics has been driven through the development of experimental methods for assessing the electrical properties of molecules in contact with two electrodes. This has in turn led to immense interest in molecular “anchoring” groups to contact the molecule to the electrode surface, the nature of the electrode-molecule contact, and the effects of contact resistance on the overall device performance. Much of the contemporary work in the area has concerned the electrical properties of single molecules contacted with metallic, often gold, electrodes. However, in the last few years, both the methods for contacting larger area films of molecular components into device-like structures more compatible with conventional fabrication strategies and the use of nonmetallic electrodes have attracted growing attention. Additionally, there is a growing interest in the construction of carbon-based (opto)electronic devices avoiding the use of rare and expensive metals as well as potentially toxic materials that result in electronic waste or e-waste.