Molecular electronics based on self-assembled monolayers

This article considers molecular electronics based on self-assembled monolayers. It begins with a brief overview of the nanofabrication of molecular devices, followed by a discussion of the electronic properties of several basic devices, from simple molecules such as molecular tunnel junctions and molecular semiconducting wires, to more complex ones such as molecular rectifying diodes. It also describes molecular switches and memories, focusing on three approaches called ‘conformational memory’, ‘charge-based memory’ and ‘RTD-based memory’ (RTD is resonant tunnelling diode). It shows that memory can be implemented from resonant tunnelling diodes following cell architecture already used for semiconductor devices. The article concludes with a review of molecular transistors.