Molecular Electronics

Reference work entry

Abstract

The prospects of using organic materials in electronics and optoelectronics applications have attracted scientists and technologists since the 1970s. This field has become known as molecular electronics. Some successes have already been achieved, for example the liquid-crystal display. Other products such as organic light-emitting displays, chemical sensors and plastic transistors are developing fast. There is also a keen interest in exploiting technologies at the molecular scale that might eventually replace silicon devices. This chapter provides some of the background physics and chemistry to the interdisciplinary subject of molecular electronics. A review of some of the possible application areas for organic materials is presented and some speculation is provided regarding future directions.

Keywords

High Occupied Molecular Orbital Lower Unoccupied Molecular Orbital Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Molecular Electronic Organic Film 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

Abbreviations

AFM

atomic force microscopy

CMOS

complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor

FET

field effect transistor

ITO

indium-tin-oxide

LB

Langmuir–Blodgett

MOS

metal/oxide/semiconductor

OLED

organic light-emitting diode

PV

photovoltaic

TCNQ

tetracyanoquinodimethane

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2006

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department School of EngineeringUniversity of DurhamDurhamUK

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