Molecular wires and devices: Advances and issues

Substantial advances have been made in (a) our experimental and theoretical understanding of simple tunnel junctions based on molecules, (b) the role of contacts in tunneling and (c) experimental studies of redox-state gated transport. In addition, a new thermally-activated transport process has been discovered in a non-redox active system. Substantial challenges remain. The engineering of molecular contacts to technologically important electronic materials will stretch the ingenuity of synthetic chemists. The theory community must rise to the challenge of describing redox-mediated transport using first-principles, parameter free approaches. These advances will enable a new generation of devices that span the silicon (electronic) and carbon (bio-organic) worlds.