Interference-based molecular transistors

Abstract

Molecular transistors have the potential for switching with lower gate voltages than conventional field-effect transistors. We have calculated the performance of a single-molecule device in which there is interference between electron transport through the highest occupied molecular orbital and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital of a single molecule. Quantum interference results in a subthreshold slope that is independent of temperature. For realistic parameters the change in gate potential required for a change in source-drain current of two decades is 20 mV, which is a factor of six smaller than the theoretical limit for a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor.