Engineers build 'wires' one molecule wide

Faster and more energy efficient electronic devices promised

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh claim to have created "the best method so far" of assembling wire-like structures only a single molecule wide.

The breakthrough is described as a significant step in attempts to reduce the circuitry size of electronic devices to the single molecule scale, and provide smaller, faster and more energy efficient electronics.

Hrvoje Petek, a professor of physics and chemistry at the School of Arts and Sciences at Pittsburgh, said that the project presents a template for assembling molecules over troughs that are only as wide as a single atom of copper.

The structures can be made to several times that length, matching wires currently used in computers and other devices.

These ultra-thin wires are one-dimensional, which may enable them to conduct electricity with minimal loss and thus improve the performance of an electronic device, according to Professor Petek.

The research centres on organic, carbon-based, ball-shaped carbon molecules known as fullerenes, but the method can serve as a template for creating the very tiny wires from a broad range of organic molecules.

Professor Petek explained that the merits of these wire-like structures can only be fully realised with organic molecules.

Materials used in contemporary electronics, such as silicon, are inorganic and cannot be miniaturised to be truly one-dimensional.

The findings were published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.