Scientists create world's first molecular transistor

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Scientists create world's first molecular transistor
Published: Wednesday, December 23, 2009 - 13:32 in Physics &
Chemistry <http://esciencenews .com/topics/ physics.chemistr y>
Related images
(click to enlarge) [Engineers adjusted the voltage applied via
gold contacts to a benzene molecule, allowing them to raise and
lower the molecule´s energy states and demonstrate that it
could be used exactly like a traditional transistor at the
molecular level.]
<http://esciencenews .com/files/ images/200912232 449880.jpg>
Hyunwook Song and Takhee Lee
A group of scientists has succeeded in creating the first
transistor made from a single molecule. The team, which includes
researchers from Yale University and the Gwangju Institute of
Science and Technology in South Korea, published their findings
in the December 24 issue of the journal Nature. The team,
including Mark Reed, the Harold Hodgkinson Professor of
Engineering & Applied Science at Yale, showed that a benzene
molecule attached to gold contacts could behave just like a
silicon transistor.

The researchers were able to manipulate the molecule's different
energy states depending on the voltage they applied to it through
the contacts. By manipulating the energy states, they were able
to control the current passing through the molecule.

"It's like rolling a ball up and over a hill, where the ball
represents electrical current and the height of the hill
represents the molecule's different energy states," Reed said.
"We were able to adjust the height of the hill, allowing current
to get through when it was low, and stopping the current when it
was high." In this way, the team was able to use the molecule in
much the same way as regular transistors are used.
[...]
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