There is a growing understanding that the progress of the conventional silicon technology will reach its physical, engineering and economic limits in near future. This fact, however, does not mean that progress in computing will slow down. What will take us beyond the silicon era are new nano-technologies that are being pursued in university and corporate laboratories around the world. In particular, molecular switching devices and systems that will self-assemble through molecular recognition are being designed and studied. Many labora tories are now testing new types of these and other reversible switches, as well as fabricating nanowires needed to connect circuit elements together. But there are still significant opportunities and demand for invention and discovery be fore nanoelectronics will become a reality. The actual mechanisms of transport through molecular quantum dots and nanowires are of the highest current ex perimental and theoretical interest. In particular, there is growing evidence that both electron-vibron interactions and electron-electron correlations are impor tant. Further progress requires worldwide efforts of trans-disciplinary teams of physicists, quantum chemists, material and computer scientists, and engineers.

There is a growing understanding that the progress of the conventional silicon technology will reach its physical, engineering and economic limits in about a decade. What will take us beyond 2010 are new molecular and other nanotechnologies that require the efforts of trans-disciplinary teams of physicists, quantum chemists, material and computer scientists, and engineers. This volume represents a unique collection of interdisciplinary review and original papers by experts in molecular nanowires, carbon nanotubes, mesoscopic super- and semiconductors, and theorists in the field of strongly correlated electrons and phonons. Topics include molecular nanojunctions and electronics, mesoscale semiconductors and superconductors, carbon nanotubes, low dimensional conductors, polarons and strongly-correlated electrons in nanoobjects, quantum theory of nanoscale, and new techniques for making nano and mesoscopic sensors and detectors.

This reference text presents a conceptual framework for understanding room-temperature electron and phonon transport through molecules and other quantum objects. The flow of electricity through molecules is explained at the boundary of physics and chemistry, providing an authoritative introduction to molecular electronics for physicists, and quantum transport for chemists. Professor Lambert provides a pedagogical account of the fundamental concepts needed to understand quantum transport and thermoelectricity in molecular-scale and nanoscale structures. The material provides researchers and advanced students with an understanding of how quantum transport relates to other areas of materials modelling, condensed matter and computational chemistry. After reading the book, the reader will be familiar with the basic concepts of molecular-orbital theory and scattering theory, which underpin current theories of quantum transport.

1. The birth of molecular electronics. 1.1. Why molecular electronics?. 1.2. A brief history of molecular electronics. 1.3. Scope and structure of the book -- 2. Fabrication of metallic atomic-size contacts. 2.1. Introduction. 2.2. Techniques involving the scanning electron microscope (STM). 2.3. Methods using atomic force microscopes (AFM). 2.4. Contacts between macroscopic wires. 2.5. Transmission electron microscope. 2.6. Mechanically controllable break-junctions (MCBJ). 2.7. Electromigration technique. 2.8. Electrochemical methods. 2.9. Recent developments. 2.10. Electronic transport measurements. 2.11. Exercises -- 3. Contacting single molecules: Experimental techniques. 3.1. Introduction. 3.2. Molecules for molecular electronics. 3.3. Deposition of molecules. 3.4. Contacting single molecules. 3.5. Contacting molecular ensembles. 3.6. Exercises -- 4. The scattering approach to phase-coherent transport in nanocontacts. 4.1. Introduction. 4.2. From mesoscopic conductors to atomic-scale junctions. 4.3. Conductance is transmission : heuristic derivation of the Landauer formula. 4.4. Penetration of a potential barrier : tunnel effect. 4.5. The scattering matrix. 4.6. Multichannel Landauer formula. 4.7. Shot noise. 4.8. Thermal transport and thermoelectric phenomena. 4.9. Limitations of the scattering approach. 4.10. Exercises -- 5. Introduction to Green's function techniques for systems in equilibrium. 5.1. The Schrodinger and Heisenberg pictures. 5.2. Green's functions of a noninteracting electron system. 5.3. Application to tight-binding Hamiltonians. 5.4. Green's functions in time domain. 5.5. Exercises -- 6. Green's functions and Feynman diagrams. 6.1. The interaction picture. 6.2. The time-evolution operator. 6.3. Perturbative expansion of causal Green's functions. 6.4. Wick's theorem. 6.5. Feynman diagrams. 6.6. Feynman diagrams in energy space. 6.7. Electronic self-energy and Dyson's equation. 6.8. Self-consistent diagrammatic theory : the Hartree-Fock approximation. 6.9. The Anderson model and the Kondo effect. 6.10. Final remarks. 6.11. Exercises -- 7. Nonequilibrium Green's functions formalism. 7.1. The Keldysh formalism. 7.2. Diagrammatic expansion in the Keldysh formalism. 7.3. Basic relations and equations in the Keldysh formalism. 7.4. Application of Keldysh formalism to simple transport problems. 7.5. Exercises -- 8. Formulas of the electrical current : exploiting the Keldysh formalism. 8.1. Elastic current : microscopic derivation of the Landauer formula. 8.2. Current through an interacting atomic-scale junction. 8.3. Time-dependent transport in nanoscale junctions. 8.4. Exercises -- 9. Electronic structure I: Tight-binding approach. 9.1. Basics of the tight-binding approach. 9.2. The extended Huckel method. 9.3. Matrix elements in solid state approaches. 9.4. Slater-Koster two-center approximation. 9.5. Some illustrative examples. 9.6. The NRL tight-binding method. 9.7. The tight-binding approach in molecular electronics. 9.8. Exercises -- 10. Electronic structure II : density functional theory. 10.1. Elementary quantum mechanics. 10.2. Early density functional theories. 10.3. The Hohenberg-Kohn theorems. 10.4. The Kohn-Sham approach. 10.5. The exchange-correlation functionals. 10.6. The basic machinery of DFT. 10.7. DFT performance. 10.8. DFT in molecular electronics. 10.9. Exercises -- 11. The conductance of a single atom. 11.1. Landauer approach to conductance: brief reminder. 11.2. Conductance of atomic-scale contacts. 11.3. Conductance histograms. 11.4. Determining the conduction channels. 11.5. The chemical nature of the conduction channels of oneatom contacts. 11.6. Some further issues. 11.7. Conductance fluctuations. 11.8. Atomic chains : parity oscillations in the conductance. 11.9. Concluding remarks. 11.10. Exercises -- 12. Spin-dependent transport in ferromagnetic atomic contacts. 12.1. Conductance of ferromagnetic atomic contacts. 12.2. Magnetoresistance of ferromagnetic atomic contacts. 12.3. Anisotropic magnetoresistance in atomic contacts. 12.4. Concluding remarks and open problems -- 13. Coherent transport through molecular junctions I : basic concepts. 13.1. Identifying the transport mechanism in single-molecule junctions. 13.2. Some lessons from the resonant tunneling model. 13.3. A two-level model. 13.4. Length dependence of the conductance. 13.5. Role of conjugation in [symbol]-electron systems. 13.6. Fano resonances. 13.7. Negative differential resistance. 13.8. Final remarks. 13.9. Exercises -- 14. Coherent transport through molecular junctions II : test-bed molecules. 14.1. Coherent transport through some test-bed molecules. 14.2. Metal-molecule contact : the role of anchoring groups. 14.3. Tuning chemically the conductance : the role of side-groups. 14.4. Controlled STM-based single-molecule experiments. 14.5. Conclusions and open problems -- 15. Single-molecule transistors : Coulomb blockade and Kondo physics. 15.1. Introduction. 15.2. Charging effects in transport through nanoscale devices. 15.3. Single-molecule three-terminal devices. 15.4. Coulomb blockade theory : constant interaction model. 15.5. Towards a theory of Coulomb blockade in molecular transistors. 15.6. Intermediate coupling : cotunneling and Kondo effect. 15.7. Single-molecule transistors : experimental results. 15.8. Exercises -- 16. Vibrationally-induced inelastic current I : experiment. 16.1. Introduction. 16.2. Inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS). 16.3. Highly conductive junctions : point-contact spectroscopy (PCS). 16.4. Crossover between PCS and IETS. 16.5. Resonant inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (RIETS). 16.6. Summary of vibrational signatures -- 17. Vibrationally-induced inelastic current II : theory. 17.1. Weak electron-phonon coupling regime. 17.2. Intermediate electron-phonon coupling regime. 17.3. Strong electron-phonon coupling regime. 17.4. Concluding remarks and open problems. 17.5. Exercises -- 18. The hopping regime and transport through DNA molecules. 18.1. Signatures of the hopping regime. 18.2. Hopping transport in molecular junctions : experimental examples. 18.3. DNA-based molecular junctions. 18.4. Exercises -- 19. Beyond electrical conductance : shot noise and thermal transport. 19.1. Shot noise in atomic and molecular junctions. 19.2. Heating and heat conduction. 19.3. Thermoelectricity in molecular junctions -- 20. Optical properties of current-carrying molecular junctions. 20.1. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of molecular junctions. 20.2. Transport mechanisms in irradiated molecular junctions. 20.3. Theory of photon-assisted tunneling. 20.4. Experiments on radiation-induced transport in atomic and molecular junctions. 20.5. Resonant current amplification and other transport phenomena in ac driven molecular junctions. 20.6. Fluorescence from current-carrying molecular junctions. 20.7. Molecular optoelectronic devices. 20.8. Final remarks. 20.9. Exercises -- 21. What is missing in this book?

Molecular Electronics is self-contained and unified in its presentation. It can be used as a textbook on nanoelectronics by graduate students and advanced undergraduates studying physics and chemistry. In addition, included in this new edition are previously unpublished material that will help researchers gain a deeper understanding into the basic concepts involved in the field of molecular electronics.

This book collects papers on the fundamentals and applications of nanoscale devices, first presented at the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Nanoscale Devices – Fundamentals and Applications held in Kishinev, Moldova, in September 2004. The focus is on the synthesis and characterization of nanoscale magnetic materials; fundamental physics and materials aspects of solid-state nanostructures; development of novel device concepts and design principles for nanoscale devices; and on applications in electronics with emphasis on defence against the threat of terrorism.

Nanotechnology is a 'catch-all' description of activities at the level of atoms and molecules that have applications in the real world. A nanometre is a billionth of a metre, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair, or 10 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom. Nanotechnology is now used in precision engineering, new materials development as well as in electronics; electromechanical systems as well as mainstream biomedical applications in areas such as gene therapy, drug delivery and novel drug discovery techniques. This book presents the latest research in this frontier field.