Design of a molecular Field Effect Transistor (mFET)

Abstract

Field Effect Transistors (FETs) are ubiquitous in electronics. As we scale FETs to ever smaller sizes, it becomes natural to ask how small a practical FET might be. We propose and analyze an atomically precise molecular FET (herein referred to as an "mFET") with 7,694 atoms made only of hydrogen and carbon atoms. It uses metallic (4,4) carbon nanotubes as the conductive leads, a linear segment of Lonsdaleite (hexagonal diamond) as the channel, Lonsdaleite as the insulating layer between the channel and the gate, and a (20,20) metallic carbon nanotube as the surrounding gate. The (4,4) nanotube leads are bonded to the channel using a mix of 5- and 6-membered rings, and to the gate using 5-, 6- and 7-membered rings. Issues of component design assessment and optimization using quantum chemical methods are discussed throughout. A 10 watt sugar-cube-sized computer made with $10^{18}$ such mFETs could deliver $\sim 10^{25}$ switching operations per second.