Lecture: «Molecular wires and logic gate design»
At the atomic scale, surface Boolean logic gates can now be designed and experimented from inside a single molecule. We will first discuss why classical and semi-classical intramolecular circuits are not very practical for beneficiating from the anticipated molecular electronic circuits computing power. This is for example the case of the well know exponential decay with length of the tunnelling current intensity through a molecular wire, opening now the exploration of a possible super-tunnelling effect.
Then, we will present the design rules of the quantum Hamiltonian computing (QHC) approach applied to molecule logic gates. Here, the possibility offered by the QHC approach for a logic function complexity increase is a very good example on how to minimize the interconnection problem that is the number of “classical to quantum” and “quantum to classical” conversions steps required to pass from the atomic scale of a molecule logic gate to the nanoscale and more in full planar technology. The first practical experiments on QHC molecule Boolean logic gates will be presented.