Applications, molecular electronics processing

Liquid-crystalline media are important especially for technical and biomedical applications of electron-transfer reactions. Molecular electronic systems, photosynthetic processes, and some... 

The phenomenon of two-photon absorption (2 PA) can be presented as a process of simultaneous absorption of two photons under high intensity irradiation, resulting in one excited molecule [Ij. The investigations of 2PA previously undertaken are of great interest for a wide variety of emerging applications [3,36-42]. The nature of 2PA can be described based on the interaction of molecular electrons with an optical field. On a microscopic level the displacement of molecular electronic charge under the electric field, E, is related to the induced molecular dipole moment fi ... 

In this chapter, we will discuss the recent results regarding the development of molecular switches and logic gates toward information processing at the molecular level based on electroactive molecules and supramolecules. Also, we will illustrate the progress of application of electron donor-acceptor compounds in high-density information storage. 

Another revolutionary application of electronically excited molecular systems is in laser technology. Lasers are intense sources of monochromatic and coherent radiation. From their early development in 1960 they have found wide fields of application. They have provided powerful tools for the study of diverse phenomena ranging from moonquakes to picosecond processes of nonradiative decay of excitational energy in molecules. The intense and powerful beam of coherent radiation capable of concentra-... 

Thin polymer films have many possible technical applications. Transistors and light-emitting diodes are the obvious ones. In ultra-thin films, one may even approach an electronics of molecular dimension. Molecular electronics will be a future challenge for basic and applied science. Nature applies it on a large scale in the reaction centers of the photosynthetic process, where photoinduced mobile charges are separated in some analogy to the separation of the photo-(p-n)-pair in the junction zone of a semiconductor (see Section 13.3.1). 

The use of self-assembly techniques in molecular electronics has proven to be useful, as shown by the many publications cited. We expect the field to continue to develop and mature as researchers fine-tune their procedures and new methods are developed. Processes refined for the molecular electronics field will find applications in other nanotechnology areas the reverse will also be true. Thus, as it will be beneficial for those in the solid-state microelectronics field to look toward molecular electronics for solutions to their problems, it will also be beneficial for those in the field of self-assembled molecular electronics to look outside that narrow range of technology for potential solutions to their problems. The coming years will surely see many exciting developments. 

---