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At
the nanometer scale, the electronic properties of materials can be very
unusual. Atomic copper wires, for example, are not very useful conductors,
and atomic magnetic bits lose their memory too quickly to be used for storing bits and bytes.
The key difference is that at the nanometer scale, so few atoms
are involved that these materials don't always behave in the ways that
we expect.
This difference is due to the importance
of quantum physics at the nanometer scale. In their bulk
forms, most materials are well understood. But at the nanoscale,
everything changes, sometimes to make the material better and sometimes
for the worse. The effects of quantum physics and the severe confinement
of conduction electrons can lead to very unusual electronic effects!
Our research group focuses on the electronic
properties of devices and circuits made with novel, nanometer-scale
objects. These objects include carbon nanotubes, metal and semiconductor
nanowires, clusters, and even biological molecules. As our
understanding of these materials grows, we can use each as a building
block to make more complex (or more interesting) circuits.
These "nano-circuits" test our understanding
of electronics at the ultimate limits of single molecules.
Is Ohm's Law true for a molecule? Where does the resistance
come from? We can directly test quantum physics and watch these
systems evolve towards classical behaviors of voltage and resistance,
with a few surprises along the way!
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