A New Molecular Way of Fabricating Transistors

December 24, 2009 7:37 PM

A team of scientists from Yale University and the up-and-coming Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea have managed to fabricate intricate electrical contacts to produce a transistor from a benzene molecule.

This is a culmination of decades of work by Mark Reed, who is conservative in describing the discovery's immediate potential.

“We’re not about to create the next generation of integrated circuits,” Reed said. “But after many years of work gearing up to this, we have fulfilled a decade-long quest and shown that molecules can act as transistors.”

Takhee Lee, A former postdoctoral associate and collaborator of Reed's, led the team at Gwangju.

Gwangju has modeled its research departments in the "CalTech style", focusing on a small core of the most promising students.

posted by Hardcore Poser (6 comments total)

Correction #1: "Takhee Lee, A former postdoctoral associate and collaborator of Reed's at Yale, ..."

Correction #2: "...decades of work by Mark Reed and others, ..."

Forgive me.  I'm typing on a molecular-size notebook keyboard.
posted by Hardcore Poser at 7:44 PM on December 24, 2009

so when are they going to put one in a fuzz box and what would it sound like?
posted by pyramid termite at 8:59 PM on December 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

축하합니다!
posted by bardic at 10:35 PM on December 24, 2009

That's pretty cool.
posted by flippant at 4:57 AM on December 25, 2009

Wonderful, carcinogenic transistors.
posted by tommasz at 8:48 AM on December 25, 2009

I'm trying to figure out how they use the voltage across the molecule to modulate the current passing through. Does increasing a voltage across a benzene ring increase the probability of resonance?
posted by Triumvirate at 2:28 PM on December 26, 2009