The researchers were able to build a single-molecule unit, which functions both as a memory unit and as a controller for this unit ● A sophisticated mechanical method makes it possible to make electrical contact with a single molecule - and to prove that it is possible to switch it and control its transition between two states of current conduction
Scientists at the IBM research laboratories in Zurich have recently presented for the first time in the world a way to store data at the single molecule level. The researchers succeeded in building a single-molecule unit, which functions both as a memory unit and as a controller for this unit. A sophisticated mechanical method makes it possible to make electrical contact with a single molecule - and to prove that it is possible to switch it and control its transition between two states of current conduction.
The research, the results of which are published in the new issue of the scientific journal SMALL, is part of an overall effort by IBM to discover and characterize molecules that could become the building blocks of the future in memory and computer logic applications. The reduction to the dimensions of a single molecule that is one nanometer in size - one millionth of a millimeter - provides a new definition of the limits of miniaturization, far below the options available in silicon-based technologies.
The experiment of Hayek Ryle and Emmanuel Lorscher proves that the molecules offer capabilities that allow to perform the same logical operations on which the existing computing systems are based: passing a current in the individual molecule allows it to be switched to an electrical state of "open" (On) or "closed" (Off) - the equivalent of -"0" and "1" used to store data. Both modes are completely stable, and allow reading at the single bit level, without changing the content of the read molecule. Such data stability is a necessary condition for advanced memory applications: IBM scientists recorded over 500 consecutive switching cycles, and switching times of about one thousandth of a second.
In order to treat molecules at the single molecule level, the researchers improved a method known as a mechanically controlled breaking junction - NCBJ. In this method, a tiny "bridge" is stretched from a metallic material spread over an insulator, by means of its mechanical bending. When the bridge breaks - two electrodes are formed, with the width of each end being a single molecule. The gap between these electrodes can be controlled, with a precision of a single picometer (thousandth of a nanometer). In the next step, the electrodes are covered with a solution of organic molecules. When the gap junction is closed - a molecule capable of chemically contacting the metallic electrodes can reach the bridge and be trapped there - and it is possible to measure what is happening in it and around it.
The molecules the researchers are focusing on were designed and synthesized especially for this purpose, from organic materials. Their length is only about 1.5 nanometers - one hundredth the size of a CMOS component in the most advanced technologies known today. The researchers hope that in addition to the perfect imitation of the operation of silicon components - it will also be possible to discover new and additional features, which will be special for the new switch.
IBM is currently testing a long list of technologies that are candidates for the network in about two decades to replace the existing one. One of the technologies closest to actual realization is the use of tiny carbon chips and nanometer wiring at the chip level.
Nanotechnology connoisseur
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