A 17 GHz molecular rectifier.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27694833.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12850 and PMC identifier 5059435.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Molecular electronics originally proposed that small molecules sandwiched between electrodes would accomplish electronic functions and enable ultimate scaling to be reached. However, so far, functional molecular devices have only been demonstrated at low frequency. Here, we demonstrate molecular diodes operating up to 17.8 GHz. Direct current and radio frequency (RF) properties were simultaneously measured on a large array of molecular junctions composed of gold nanocrystal electrodes, ferrocenyl undecanethiol molecules and the tip of an interferometric scanning microwave microscope. The present nanometre-scale molecular diodes offer a current density increase by several orders of magnitude compared with that of micrometre-scale molecular diodes, allowing RF operation. The measured S<sub>11</sub> parameters show a diode rectification ratio of 12 dB which is linked to the rectification behaviour of the direct current conductance. From the RF measurements, we extrapolate a cut-off frequency of 520 GHz. A comparison with the silicon RF-Schottky diodes, architecture suggests that the RF-molecular diodes are extremely attractive for scaling and high-frequency operation.