The field of molecular electronics has been around for more than 40 years, but only recently have some fundamental problems been overcome. It is now time for researchers to move beyond simple descriptions of charge transport and explore the numerous intrinsic features of molecules.
References
Marcus, R. A. Rev. Mod. Phys. 65, 599–610 (1993).
Cuevas, J. C. & Scheer, E. Molecular Electronics an Introduction to Theory and Experiment (World Scientific, 2010).
Cuniberti, G., Fagas, G. & Richter, K. Introducing Molecular Electronics (Springer, 2005).
Nitzan, A. Chemical Dynamics in Condensed Phases Relaxation, Transfer and Reactions in Condensed Molecular Systems (Oxford Univ. Press, 2006).
Nitzan, A. Annu. Rev. Phy. Chem. 52, 681–750 (2001).
Moerner, W. E., Orrit, M. & Wild, U. P. Single-Molecule Optical Detection, Imaging and Spectroscopy (Wiley, 1996).
Mann, B. & Kuhn, H. J. Appl. Phys. 42, 4398–4406 (1971).
Aviram, A. & Ratner, M. A. Chem. Phys. Lett. 29, 277–283 (1974).
Datta, S. Lessons from Nanoelectronics: A New Perspective on Transport (World Scientific, 2012).
Reed, M. A., Zhou, C., Muller, C. J., Burgin, T. P. & Tour, J. M Science 278, 252–254 (1997).
Joachim, C., Gimzewski, J. K. & Aviram, A. Nature 408, 541–548 (2000).
Li, C., Mishchenko, A. & Wandlowski, T. Topics in Current Chemistry 313, 121–188 (2012).
Tao, N. J. Nature Nanotech. 1, 173–181 (2006).
Venkataraman, L., Klare, J. E., Nuckolls, C., Hybertsen, M. S. & Steigerwald, M. L. Nature 442, 904–907 (2006).
Arroyo, C. R. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 52, 3152–3155 (2013).
Simmons, J. G. Phys. Rev. 155, 657–660 (1967).
Naaman, R. & Waldeck, D. H. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 3, 2178–2187 (2012).
Galperin, M., Ratner, M. A. & Nitzan, A. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 19, 103201 (2007).
Lee, W., Song, B. & Reddy, P. Annu. Rev. Heat Transfer 16, 259–286 (2013).
Park, T-H. & Galperin, M. Phys. Rev. B 84, 205540 (2011).
Wang, W. Y., Lee, T., Kretzschmar, I. & Reed, M. A. Nano Lett. 4, 643–646 (2004).
Subotnik, J. E., Hansen, T., Ratner, M. A. & Nitzan, A. J. Chem. Phys. 130, 144105 (2009).
Zhao, Y., Yokojima, S. & Chen, G. H. J. Chem. Phys. 113, 4016–4027 (2000).
Mayor, M. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 42, 5834–5838 (2003).
Solomon, G. C., Herrmann, C., Hansen, T., Mujica, V. & Ratner, M. A. Nature Chem. 2, 223–228 (2010).
Solomon, G. C., Vura-Weis, J., Herrmann, C., Wasielewski, M. R. & Ratner, M. A. J. Phys. Chem. B 114, 14735–14744 (2010).
Chua, L. O. Appl. Phys. A 102, 765–783 (2011).
Nichols, R. J. et al. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 12, 2801–2815 (2010).
Solomon, G. C., Herrmann, C., Hanser, T., Vladimiro, M. & Ratner, M. A. Nature Chem. 2, 223–228 (2010).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ratner, M. A brief history of molecular electronics. Nature Nanotech 8, 378–381 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2013.110
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2013.110
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
Quantum study of symmetrical/asymmetrical charge and energy transfer in a simple candidate molecular switch
Structural Chemistry (2023)
-
Exciton transport in photosynthetic complex dimers
Journal of Chemical Sciences (2023)
-
Synthetic two-dimensional electronics for transistor scaling
Frontiers of Physics (2023)
-
Hybrid molecular graphene transistor as an operando and optoelectronic platform
Nature Communications (2023)
-
From molecular to supramolecular electronics
Nature Reviews Materials (2021)