Abstract
The basic principles in development of new functional devices can be inspired from the biological systems such as molecular recognition, electron transfer chain, or photosynthetic reaction center. By mimicking organization of the functional molecules in the biological system, molecular electronic devices can be realized artificially. Because the basic paradigm for electronic information storage is retention of charge in a capacitor, the most straightforward approach to molecular scale memory would store charges at the molecular level. Another, more fundamental, approach would utilize the oxidation states of individual molecules to store charge. This technique has the advantage that multiple oxidation-reduction states within one molecule can be addressed to access multibit. Redox-active biomolecules have charged states at various potential. Application of a reducing potential causes the biomolecules to obtain electrons, resulting in a negatively charged monolayer. When an oxidizing potential is applied, electron-transfer returns the molecules to the neutral state. In this study, molecular information storage of self-assembled layer of spinach ferredoxin was investigated by applying the reduction potential as a write function and measuring the stored reducing charge as a read function.
