Charges cascading along a molecular chain

Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed a method to fabricate a one-dimensional array of individual molecules and to precisely control its electronic structure. By carefully tuning the voltage applied to a chain of molecules embedded in a one-dimensional carbon (graphene) layer, they found they could control whether all, none, or some of the molecules carry an electric charge. This technique could lead to new designs for nanoscale electronic components including transistors and logic gates.