Molecular Electronics: from Physics to Computing

Even if Moore’s Law continues to hold, it will take about 250 years to fill the performance gap between present-day computer and the ultimate computer determined from the laws of physics alone. Information processing technology in the post-CMOS era will likely consist of a heterogeneous set of novel device technologies that span a broad range of materials, operational principles, data representations, logic systems and architectures. Molecular nanostructures promise to occupy a prominent role in any attempt to extend chargebased device technology beyond the projected limits of CMOS scaling. We discuss the potentials and challenges of molecular electronics and identify some fundamental knowledge gaps that need to be addressed for a successful introduction of molecule-enabled computing technology.