Molecular electronics and quantum transport

Aim of the course

This course is intended to be an introductory course accessible for both chemists and Physicists. It will present in an illustrated and accessible fashion the principles of quantum electron transport in molecular and nanoscale devices and offer an overview of this active field of Nanosciences.

Course content

1. General Introduction 1/3 : The foundation of Nanoelectronics : illustrated
historical presentation of new concepts and recent experiments
· Objects : heterostructures, nanocristals, nanotubes and nanowires
· First introduction of concepts : low dimension transport , quantum confinement,
Coulomb blockade and quantum dot

2. General Introduction 2/3 : The future of Nanoelectronics : beyond the MOSFET.
· New materials (beyond silicon )
· New architectures and New ideas : Spintronics and Quantum information.

3. General Introduction 3/3 :
The Instruments of Nanoelectronics : Fabrication and Measurement techniques :
· -Physics : electron microscopies , techniques of nanolithography, scanning probes,
cryogenics…
· -Chemistry : Self assembly, supramolecular chemistry
· -Bio-inspired approaches : DNA guided assembly, bioelectronics (neurons/solid
state devices interfacing)

4. Introduction to Electron Transport : Concepts and new phenomena
· Hamiltonian description of Electron in a lattice, Bloch waves
· Band structure and Density of states
· Effect of confinement on the density of states,

5. From the bulk 3D to the single molecule. :
· Application to the Benzene molecule and to the carbon nanotubes
· Illustrated presentation of the effect of Quantum confinement : Electronic
spectroscopy

6. Semiclassical Transport :
· effect of disorder and geometry , notion of elastic/inelastic mean free path,
localization of electrons , Phase coherence and mesoscopic effects

7. Quantum transport
· Ballistic transport and Quantum interferences
· Landauer formula , quantization o f conductance, example of Quantum point
contact.

8. Single electronics , introduction to Coulomb blockade and tunneling
phenomena
· The single electron box (and its superconducting counterpart)
· The single Electron Transistor and its applications (electrometers, Thermometers)
· Electron pumps and Single electron memories

9. The Quantum dot : an artificial and tunable atom
· Theory of the quantum dot : definition of the addition energy
· Spectroscopy of a quantum dot,
· electron/electron interactions (
· spin effects (Kondo resonance, Zeeman splitting)

10. From Organic Electronics to Single Atom transistors
· Notions of Quantum Chemistry
· Theory of the molecular junction
· strong and weak coupling,
· analogies with the previously introduced concepts (single electron devices and
quantum dots)
· Links between chemical structure/functions and electron properties
· diodes, molecular transistors, memories and switches
· Introduction to Molecular Spintronic