Single-Molecule Transistors

Chemists and physicists have recently joined forces to create transistor devices on a nanometer scale. In his Perspective, Kouwenhoven discusses results reported by Bockrath et al . in the same issue (p. 1922 ) in which carbon nanotubes were used to create switching elements that behave like transistors. Such devices are completely governed by the laws of quantum mechanics and open the possibilities for fundamentally different kinds of circuits at enormously higher density.