Advances toward molecular-scale electronic digital logic circuits: a review and prospectus

Molecules can be made precisely, identically, and cheaply in enormous numbers. Moreover, during the past several years there has been great progress in the development and the demonstration of such “molecular electronic” devices, individual molecules that conduct and switch electrical currents. The paper reviews and explains the recent experimental results that are establishing a foundation for building tiny powerful computational and control systems integrated on the molecular scale. Further, the author describes research at The MITRE Corporation that is building upon these experimental results to propose detailed designs for molecular electronic digital logic circuits and functions