Projecting the nanoworld: Concepts, results and perspectives of molecular electronics

A bottom-up approach is a promising alternative to build nanodevices and/or nanomachines starting from molecular building blocks. The idea of molecular electronics comes from a farsighted paper by Aviram and Ratner, predicting that single molecules with a donor-spacer-acceptor structure would have rectifying properties when placed between two electrodes. Today, molecular electronics is emerging as an alternative to Si-nanoelectronics for building integrated devices. This review aims to give an overview of this emerging field, analysing the concepts, the key results and the perspectives.