Abstract

A number of groups have recently reported experimental studies of the electronic conduction through a monolayer of organic molecules self-assembled between two large metallic contacts [1-5]. Measured resistances to date are at least several megohms per molecule and has to be lowered by a few orders of magnitude before such wires can be considered seriously for interconnect applications. In this paper we present a simple model that lends insight into the factors affecting the molecular resistance and suggests possible schemes for designing molecular wires with lower resistance that can be truly said to 'conduct'.

© 1997 Optical Society of America