Researchers Build 1,000 Molecular Devices at Up to 99% Yield With Self-Assembled Contacts
Updated
Updated · Nature.com · Aug 3
Researchers Build 1,000 Molecular Devices at Up to 99% Yield With Self-Assembled Contacts
3 articles · Updated · Nature.com · Aug 3
Summary
More than 1,000 electrically active metal-molecule-metal devices were fabricated using self-assembled contacts, with yields reaching 99% and stable operation across 10^5 measurement cycles.
The approach first uses standard semiconductor manufacturing, then transforms the finished structures through engineered surface interactions to create self-aligned, pristine molecular interfaces without damaging sub-1 nm layers.
In situ Raman measurements confirmed the molecules remained intact after integration, addressing a central obstacle that has limited scalable molecular-device fabrication.
A crossbar array of self-rectified molecular memory devices also performed vector-matrix multiplication, showing the method can extend from single junctions to neuromorphic computing architectures.
The work positions self-assembled contacts as a bridge between bottom-up molecular self-assembly and top-down chip fabrication for computing, sensing, optical and quantum devices.