Even at the nanoscale we wonder if our wires are making good contact

System Administrator Tuesday 23 of March, 2010
Making good electrical connections to devices has always been important but may be even more important with organic semiconductors. The high simplified figure below shows a hypothetical single organic molecule (polyacetylene) based FET with metal contacts at each end. According the the article Molecular electronics with single molecules in solid-state devices by Kasper Moth-Poulsen & Thomas Bjørnholm, the molecular-electrode coupling strength strongly effects the electronic state of the entire device. The conduction of the electrons through the device can range from hopping to tunneling as the molecule-electrode contact goes from weak to strong.

Polyacetylene Contacts

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