The genesis of molecular electronics

Molecular electronics is, relatively speaking, a young field. Even so, there have been many significant advances and a much greater understanding of the types of materials that will be useful in molecular electronics, and their properties. The purpose of this review is to provide a broad basis for understanding the areas where new advances might arise, and to provide introduction to the subdisciplines of molecular electronics. This review is divided into two major parts; an historical examination of the development of conventional electronics, which should provide some understanding of the push towards molecular electronics. The problems associated with continuing to shrink conventional systems are presented, along with references to some of the efforts to solve them. This section is followed by an in-depth look at the most important research into the types of behaviors that molecular systems have been found to display.