Nanotechnology: Electronics at the atomic scale
Cover art, Felice Frankel.
Two papers this week show the potential of molecules as nanometre-scale
electronic components. By varying the structure of specially designed
molecules containing transition-metal atoms cobalt in one case and a pair of
vanadium atoms in the other transistor characteristics can be adjusted and
current flow channelled through one quantum state. The cover is a
representation of a cobalt-terpyridinyl coordination complex (rig
