CARBOTRON

Carbon-based nanoelectronics

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Molecular electronics has the potential to go well below the size limitations of silicon-based electronics, such that the well known Moore's law can be maintained for much longer than with silicon alone. Without advances in nanoscale/molecular electronics, future computers would not be able to continue the current pace of development over the next twenty years. Molecular electronics can reduce the size of semiconductor rectifiers to the nanoscale by using single molecules as rectifiers. In addition, molecular electronics can also pave the way to single molecule sensing, which is an important part of the improvement of next-generation health care involving highly sensitive detection of toxic materials.

Carbon-based nanomaterials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, graphene nanoribbons, and carbonaceous molecular wires are the basis of carbon-based nanoelectronics. The 2009 edition of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) recognizes the importance of carbon-based nanoelectronics, calling it an 'emerging research information processing technology' and stating that it 'exhibits high potential and is maturing rapidly'. The study of carbon-based nanomaterials is important for the eventual realization of their vast application potential. The research in this proposal will focus on the theoretical multi-scale modeling of nanoscale carbon-based materials such as nanotubes and graphene, addressing multiple different topics. Nanoscale rectification will be studied by examining various single molecule rectifiers connecting graphene or nanotube electrodes. Single molecule sensing will be studied by looking at functionalized graphene. The electronic structure of small diameter carbon nanotubes and small molecules that are of interest in molecular electronics will be examined with state-of-the-art methods that go beyond conventional density functional theory and can provide reliable predictions for experimentalists.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

In the 1960s, Intel's co-founder Gordon Moore predicted that the number of transistors on a chip would double about every two years. As that law seems to be hitting its barrier, scientists have demonstrated the utility of molecular electronics.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Moore's Law has held true with transistor numbers and computing power increasing while prices decrease. However, it's beginning to reach its limits largely due to restrictions imposed by silicon-based electronics. Among the most promising solutions are molecular electronics that use single molecules as rectifiers. Carbon-based nanomaterials are at the forefront of emerging information processing technology. The EU-funded project 'Carbon-based nanoelectronics' (CARBOTRON) used multi-scale modelling to investigate characteristics, a prerequisite to exploitation.

The team studied nano-scale rectification in molecular electronics, the foundation for new computing systems. They identified a novel mechanism for carbon-based spintronics or spin transport electronics, devices exploiting electron (or more generally nuclear) spin instead of or in addition to charge. The findings led to three publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

Additional theoretical experiments with carbon-based materials included an investigation of carbon nanobamboo. This is a unique structure made of carbon nanotubes of varying diameters and chiral angles, like long random pieces of bamboo, grown inside larger-diameter carbon nanotubes. The modelling pointed to a mechanism for determining the stable structure.

Finally, researchers used many-body methods to show that predicted values of a band gap measure in 1D carbon molecules agree with published experimental values.

The CARBOTRON project went beyond the original scope, investigating other low-dimensional materials similar to those in the original objectives. Among these were silicene, which is the silicon equivalent of graphene, hydrogenated silicene called silicane, and the germanium equivalent of silicene called germanane. Modelling work demonstrated the tremendous utility of these materials in nano-scale electronics thanks to their excellent physical properties. Seven more papers were published on the topics.

Overall, scientists published 14 articles in esteemed peer-reviewed journals, several of which have been cited many times since. CARBOTRON has placed an important brick in the foundation of future computing systems, demonstrating the potential of molecular electronics to overcome limitations to Moore's Law.