Physics at Tomsk State University with German colleagues conduct calculations of new properties of organic molecules that arise during their interaction with the metal surface. These properties can find the application in molecular electronics.
Compared with traditional semiconductor electronics molecular electronics based on the use of organic molecules, have many advantages. One of them is the minimal energy consumption. Another advantage is a large variety of organic molecules with different properties that accordingly leads to more opportunity for the creation of technical devices.
The Department for Physics of Semiconductor (Faculty of Physics) has been studying the behavior of organic molecules on metal surfaces.
- There are two ways of interaction of molecules with a metal surface: the formation of a chemical bond between the molecule and the metal and the attraction by the Van der Waals forces - says Sergey Filimonov, Associate Professor at the Department for Physics of Semiconductor (Faculty of Physics). - It is believed that the connection of Van der Waals forces are much weaker than chemical. However, there are systems in which the contribution of the interaction of these species is comparable. Such systems can have unusual properties that can be used to create new types of electronic devices.
Scientists chose triazine – a derivative of benzene, a molecule with the rigid hexagonal structure as the organic material. It was believed that such molecules do not are exposed to significant deformation when interacting with the metal, respectively, their properties remain unchanged. However, during the research, it was discovered that it is not. On the metal surface under the influence of van der Waals forces, a molecule is bent, it acquires new properties.
If change the connection of the molecule with a metal by means of external exposure, it is possible to get a so-called molecular switch and used it as a memory element, in one state the molecule acts as a zero and in the other acts as a one. Because the molecular size is very small, it allows recording much more information per square centimeter.
Tomsk scientists carry out the calculation of the molecular properties by the method developed at Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (Germany), which recently was visited by Sergey Filimonov:
- Our colleagues from Germany have been developing methods for calculating the electronic structure of materials. One of the methods allows you to precisely take into account the Van der Waals force. We use it to calculate the force of interaction in the metal - molecule system that we study.