• Molecular Electronics

• Neuro-inspired Organic Electronics

The NCM group (Nanostructures, nanoComponents & Molecules) is interested in the physics of nanostructures and nanodevices made of organic molecules and/or hybrid systems involving organic molecules, inorganic metal and/or semiconductor nanostructures. We contribute to knowledge development, studying the fundamental electronic and transport properties of various molecular devices based on self-assembled monolayers, small ensemble of molecules, supramolecular assembly of molecules and nano-objects. We also design, fabricate and study functional molecular devices such as memory, switch, memristor and synapstor.

Our research objectives are:

• design and characterization of molecular and nanoscale electronic devices

• elucidation of fundamental electronic properties of these molecular and nanoscale devices

• study of functional molecular devices and integrated molecular systems

• exploration of new computing paradigms using molecules and nanostructures.  

Recent achievements concern:

• the comprehension of the transport phenomena (e.g. rectification behavior, molecule-interface issues, electron- molecular vibration interaction, dynamic transport, noise phenomena, conformation switching, etc...) in molecular junctions.

• the study, mainly by electrical scanning probe microscopy (EFM, C-AFM, KPFM) of the electronic properties of organic nanostructures and nano-materials functionalized with molecules (e.g. islands of pentacene monolayers, chemically functionalized silicon nanowires,...)

• the design and understanding of nano-scale organic devices or organic devices including nano-objects (transistor, memory) for new applications such as neuromorphic devices and computing (e.g. developing a new organic device - a synapstor- with a synapse-inspired behavior).

On-going projects are related to:

• Organic self-assembled nanodielectrics on Ge and III-V materials.

• Four states molecular devices.

• Sub-electron-sensitive nano-scale silicon electrometer for single bio-molecules detection and study.

• Organic synapstor (synapse transistor) for interfacing, connecting neurons and neuro-inspired circuits and computing.

• Synaptic molecular networks for bio-inspired information processing.

• Development and integration of nanoscale memristive devices for neuro-inspired computing systems.