Molecular Nanowires and Other Quantum Objects

There is a growing understanding that the progress of the conventional silicon technology will reach its physical, engineering and economic limits in near future. This fact, however, does not mean that progress in computing will slow down. What will take us beyond the silicon era are new nano-technologies that are being pursued in university and corporate laboratories around the world. In particular, molecular switching devices and systems that will self-assemble through molecular recognition are being designed and studied. Many labora­ tories are now testing new types of these and other reversible switches, as well as fabricating nanowires needed to connect circuit elements together. But there are still significant opportunities and demand for invention and discovery be­ fore nanoelectronics will become a reality. The actual mechanisms of transport through molecular quantum dots and nanowires are of the highest current ex­ perimental and theoretical interest. In particular, there is growing evidence that both electron-vibron interactions and electron-electron correlations are impor­ tant. Further progress requires worldwide efforts of trans-disciplinary teams of physicists, quantum chemists, material and computer scientists, and engineers.

Table of Contents:
Characterization of Nanoscale Molecular Junctions.- Controlled Electron Transport in Single Molecules.- Single-Molecule Conformational Switches.- Dipole Interactions in Nanosystems.- Charge and Spin Transport in Organic Nanosystems: Rectification, Switching, Spin Injection.- Fabrication of Carbon Nanotube Field Effect Transistors by Self-assembly.- Two-channel Kondo Effect in a Modified Single Electron Transistor.- Synthesis and Structural Characterisation of Single Wall Carbon Nanotubes Filled with Ionic and Covalent Materials.- Electron Transport in Carbon Nanotube Shuttles and Telescopes.- Arguments for Quasi-one-dimensional Room Temperature Superconductivity in Carbon Nanotubes.- Thermodynamic Inequalities in Superfluid and Critical Velocities in Narrow Orifices.- Shot Noise in Mesoscopic Diffusive Andreev Wires.- Proximity Effect in Superconductor/Ferromagnet Layered Structures.- Polarons in Semiconductor Quantum Structures.- Polarons in Complex Oxides and Molecular Nanowires.- The Dynamics of Inelastic Quantum Tunneling.- Explicit and Hidden Symmetries in Complex Quantum Dots and Quantum Ladders.- Hole Band Engineering in Self-assembled Quantum Dots and Molecules.- Quantum Dot in the Kondo Regime Coupled to Unconventional Superconducting Electrodes.- Quantum Crossbars. Spectra and Spectroscopy.- Quantized Conductance in Atomic-scale Point Contacts Formed by Local Electrochemical Deposition of Silver.- Shell-effects in Heavy Alkali-metal Nanowires.- Conductance of Nanosystems with Interaction.- STM Imaging of Vortex Structures in Thin Films.- Hybrid Superconductor/ferromagnet Nanostructures.- Phase Transitions in Mesoscopic Superconducting Films.- Fano Effect in an Interacting Aharonov-Bohm System Connected with Superconducting Leads.- Spin-dependent Electronic Transport through Molecular Devices.- Quantum Interference and Spin-Splitting Effects in Si1?xGex p-type Quantum Well.- The Size-induced Metal-insulator Transition in Mesoscopic Conductors.- An Open-boundary, Time-dependent Technique for Calculating Currents in Nanowires.- Electronic States of Nanoscopic Chains and Rings from First Principles: EDABI Method.- Ultrafast Real-time Spectroscopy of Low Dimensional Charge Density Wave Compounds.- Normal Metal Cold-electron Bolometer: Response, Noise, and Electron Cooling.- Magnetic Switching in the Perovskite Nano-devices.- Spin Polarized Effects at the Interface between Manganites and Organic Semiconductors.- Contributing Authors.