current blockade effect with atomically precise molecules tagged posts

Columbia researchers wired a single molecular cluster to gold electrodes to show that it exhibits a quantized and controllable flow of charge at room temperature.
Credit: Bonnie Choi/Columbia University

Researchers are first to reproducibly achieve the current blockade effect using atomically precise molecules at room temperature, a result that could lead to shrinking electrical components + boosting data storage + computing power. Current blockade is the ability to switch a device from the insulating to the conducting state where charge is added and removed one electron at a time.

Bonnie Choi, a graduate student in the Roy group created a single cluster of geometrically ordered atoms with an inorganic core made of just 14 atoms – resulting in a diameter of about 0...