(Proposed) Center for Molecular-Scale Electronics and Spintronics

A proposed Center for Molecular-Scale Electronics and Spintronics (CMSES), centered at the University of Alabama, will unite scientists, engineers, and educators in a common project to make electronic transport and tunneling magnetoresistance devices with new functionalities, based on either a single molecule or a monolayer of molecules as the electroactive components.

CMSES should lead to component sizes (design rule DR) as small as DR = 3 nm, so that transformative miniaturization and concomitant speed-up of digital electronics and magnetic storage can be reached. The knowledge gained will profoundly affect electronic devices (“beyond Moore’s law”) and also organic spintronics (tunneling magnetoresistance). CMSES will measure how fast electrical signals can travel from metal to molecule to metal, at resonance and off resonance, at zero field and applied magnetic field, using either chemisorptive bonding to the metals or physisorbed monolayers of these molecules.

Because the objects under study are either a single molecule or a small monolayer of molecules acting in parallel, advanced electrode designs (including three- and four-electrode gaps of 3 nm) will be developed, monitored, and analyzed by the best and most sensitive available spectroscopic scanning and nanoscopic analytical techniques.

CMSES will study the interface between metal and molecule, and its role in allowing electron transfer, by measuring energy barriers and coupling modes (from physical adsorption to covalent bond formation) between molecule and metal. The proposed study will enable the design of systems with more efficient electron transfer (at resonance, when the free energies of metal and molecule coincide) and with less efficient modes (when the transfer is far from resonance). CMSES will measure both single-molecule devices and devices where many molecules in parallel can deliver a larger electron flux. Substantial progress in understanding the fundamental design principles of molecule-based resistors and rectifiers will be made, leading to designing practical electronic devices. This can be extended to power amplification by a single molecule (unimolecular amplifier). Valuable knowledge about the statics and dynamics of charge and spin transfers across a single molecule or a monolayer of molecules will provide insight and control over molecule - metal interactions.

CMSES is comprised of 29 faculty at 14 institutions

Project Director:
Robert Metzger (UA)

Deputy PD:
David Dixon (UA)