• Dr Shailendra Kumar Srivastava
• Dr Subhash Kumar Sharma

How does the electrical current flow through a single molecule? Can a molecule mimic the behaviour of an ordinary microelectronics component or maybe provide a new electronic functionality? How can a single molecule be addressed and incorporated into an electrical circuit? How to interconnect molecular devices and integrate them into complex architectures? These questions and related ones are by no means new and, as we shall see later in this paper, they were already posed many decades ago. The difference is that we are now in position to at least address them in the usual scientific manner, i.e., by providing quantitative experimental and theoretical results. The advances in the last two or three decades, both in nanofabrication techniques and in the quantum theory of electronic transport, allow us now to explore and to understand the basic properties of rudimentary electrical circuits in which molecules are used as basic building blocks. It is worth stressing right from the start that we do not yet have definitive answers for the questions posed above. However, a tremendous progress has been made in recent years and some concepts and techniques have already been firmly established. In this sense, one of main goals of this paper is to review such progress, but more importantly, this monograph is intended to provide a solid basis for the new generation of researchers that should take the field of molecular electronics to the next level. Molecular electronics, as used in this paper, is defined as the field of science that investigates the electronic and thermal transport properties of circuits in which individual molecules (or assemblies of them) are used as basic building blocks. Obviously, some of the feature dimensions of such molecular circuits are of the order of Nano meters (or even less) and therefore, molecular electronics should be viewed as a subfield of Nano science or nanotechnology in which traditional disciplines like physics, chemistry, material science, electrical engineering and biology play a fundamental role. Molecular electronics, in the sense of a potential technology, is based on the bottom-up approach where the idea is to assemble elementary pieces to form more complex structures, as opposed to the top-down approach where the idea is to shrink macroscopic systems and components. Molecular electronics has emerged from the constant quest for new technologies that could complement the silicon-based electronics, which in the meantime it has become a true nanotechnology. It seems very unlikely that molecular electronics will ever replace the silicon-based electronics, but there are good reasons to believe that it can complement it by providing, for instance, novel functionalities out of the scope of traditional solid state devices. More importantly, molecular electronics has become a true field of science where many basic questions and quantum phenomena are being investigated. In this sense, the importance of molecular electronics is unquestionable and it is fair to say that different traditional disciplines are benefiting from advances in this field.

electronic transport, molecular electronics, silicon-based electronics

"An Overview On Birth of Molecular Electronics", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 3, page no.a617-a623, March-2022, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2203074.pdf

"An Overview On Birth of Molecular Electronics", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.9, Issue 3, page no. ppa617-a623, March-2022, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2203074.pdf