Design and Analysis of Molecular Electronic Circuits
Formed from Single Walled Nanotubes
D.A. Buzatu, F. Nguyen, and J.A. Darsey*
University of Arkansas at Little Rock,
Little Rock, Arkansas 72204 USA
In the quest to miniaturize computer chips and pack even more transistors on them there is a limit that is quickly being approached. "Physics may soon impose barriers that could slow the chips industry's blazing progress to a crawl" [1]. A drastic reduction in the size of electronic circuits can be achieved if molecules can be used to construct them. Recently there have been examples of molecules proposed for possible use as electronic components. We have previously proposed molecular circuits designed from polyaniline polymer strands, polyacetylene polymer, and also charge transfer salts acting as transistors.[2] In our previous work we have detailed the calculations and discussed the mechanisms by which the proposed molecules would behave like their macro-scale semiconductor analogs. At this time we would like to present further work in the area of molecular electronics. However, the molecular circuits that will be presented here will be computationally constructed from carbon single wall nanotubes (SWNTs), mixed carbon/silicon single wall nanotubes, boron nitride (BN) nanotubes, and transition metal endohedral doped nanotubes. These transition metal doped nanotubes will be shown to have semi-conducting properties, and will be used to construct diodes and transistors. Due to the use of various SWNTs to construct these circuits, the circuits are much more rigid than the previously presented polymer circuits. As in our previous work, we will attempt to illustrate the properties of the molecules that we believe would make them good candidates for molecular electronic components.
- The Wall Street Journal, Tuesday, December 10, 1996.
- Buzatu, D.A., and Darsey, J.A., "Design and Anaysis of Molecular Electronic Components and Circuits", Proceedings of the International Symposium of Clusters and Nanostructure Interfaces, World Scientific Publishing, (In Press).
*Corresponding Address:
Dr. Jerry A. Darsey,
Professor, Department of Chemistry &
Department of Applied Sciences
University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR)
2801 University Ave.
Little Rock, Arkansas 72204 USA
phone: (501) 569-8828
Fax: (501)569-8838
e-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://www.computational.ualr.edu/
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