The discovery that could subvert computations emerged from the University of Miami lab, where physicists created perhaps the most conductive organic molecules in the world.
The breakthrough, published this week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, demonstrated for the first time that organic molecules can enable electrons to cross energy losses at distances of no more than 20 nanometers – a capability previously thought impossible.
“So far, no molecular material has allowed electrons to cross it without a substantial loss of conductivity,” explained Kun Wang, assistant professor of physics at the Miami School of Arts and Sciences. “This work is the first proof that organic molecules can make electrons migrate over it without any energy loss in tens of nanometers.”
The research team is led by Wang, including graduate students Mehrdad Shiri and Shaocheng Shen in collaboration with scientists from Georgia Tech and the University of Rochester. Their two-year efforts resulted in a significant new material consisting primarily of naturally occurring elements (carbon, sulfur and nitrogen).
Apart from smaller, more energy-efficient computing devices, the researchers believe their findings can make it impossible for silicon to achieve completely new features.
Time is crucial. Silicon-based computing has followed Moore’s Law for decades, and transistor density doubles approximately every two years. But physical limitations threaten this progress.
“We are rapidly reaching the physical limitations of silicon-based electronics, and it is more challenging to miniaturize electronic components with materials we have used for half a century,” Wang noted.
The reason why this molecular system is set is how electrons move through it. Unlike traditional materials, the conductivity decreases exponentially with the increase in the size of the molecule, and these molecular “wires” maintain their conductivity at surprising distances.
“What’s unique in our molecular system is that electrons propagate like bullets without energy loss, so it’s theoretically the most efficient way to transmit electrons in any material system,” Wang explained.
The stability of the molecule under environmental conditions makes real-world applications particularly promising. Graduate student Shiri emphasized this practicality: “Because it is chemically robust and air-stable, it can even be integrated with existing nanoelectronic components in the chip and used as an interconnect between electronic wires or chips.”
Apart from smaller, more energy-efficient computing devices, the researchers believe their findings can make it impossible for silicon to achieve completely new features. The structure of the molecule is produced by “an interesting interaction of electron rotations at both ends of the molecule”, which may be an open door for applications in quantum computing.
The team used a technique called STM breakthrough connection under a scanning tunneling microscope to capture individual molecules and measure their conductance.
Although practical applications may still take years, these findings represent an important step towards molecular-scale electronics using both cheap and laboratory-available materials.
“These are new attributes that do not add costs, but can make computing devices more powerful and energy-efficient,” Wang concluded.
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