IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Science & Technology, Bottom-up nanomachines

IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Science & Technology, Bottom-up nanomachines

The objectives of bottom-up nanomachines (BUN) are, the design, simulation, synthesis, interconnection, assembly and testing of nano-devices and nano-machines starting from atomic or molecular parts. As a nano-machine, a molecular signal processor can be fabricated in two ways:

* A very large number of elementary “discrete” molecular gates are interconnected by a complex network of metallic nanojunctions and wires.
* A number of gates is integrated into a single molecule, respecting quantum superposition and design rules to obtain a molecule molecular-processor. These elementary processors are interconnected via a regular lattice of metallic nanowires or of optical subwavelength waveguides.

STM image of molecules

The technological objective of bottom-up nanomachines is to evaluate these architecture, to fabricate an example of each and to compare their relative performances. One scientific objective of bottom-up nanomachines is to understand and control the intramolecular quantum behaviour of specifically designed and synthesized molecules, using a surface to localize and stabilize them. It is of prime importance to investigate and control the following properties:

* The tunnelling transport through a single molecule in a metal-molecule-metal junction with the goal to achieve a large conductance.
* The temperature-dependent and time-dependent molecular and intramolecular mechanical behaviour of a single molecule on a surface.

The corresponding experimental studies are supported by new software which are able to extract the detailed molecular structure of an adsorbate from its scanning tunnelling (STM) or atomic force microscope (AFM) image, the microscopy adapted for all the processes to be studied in BUN.