Nanoelectromechanical Memories and switches

The ability to change shape is a compelling attraction of molecular semiconductors. Compared to rigid inorganic materials, molecules are soft and malleable, and their conformational changes are essential to the functionality of biological systems. Applications of nanoelectromechanical (NEM) molecular devices include memories and transistors. Information can be stored in the conformation of molecules, potentially leading to very high density memories, and molecular transistors that change shape under bias could exhibit subthreshold slopes of << 60 mV/decade [1]. Indeed, as an example of the potential of NEMs, voltage-gated ion channels possess subthreshold slopes of approximately 15 mV/decade [2].