The field of molecular electronics focuses on creating electronic devices using specific molecules. The small size of molecules presents a significant advantage. Researchers can explore a wide variety of molecules to design devices with diverse optical, mechanical, and electrical properties.
These molecules can function as logic gates. The dynamic behavior of non-stationary molecular states, generated through electrical, electrochemical, or optical inputs, can be combined to build logic circuits. These molecular states and their dynamics offer the potential to implement multi-value logic or finite-state machines. A monomolecular device comprises the molecule and external wires.
In contrast to the conventional top-down approach of semiconductor technology, molecular electronics adopts a bottom-up approach. This involves synthesizing and assembling molecules to create circuits of increasing complexity.