USE OF ELECTROACTIVE MONOLAYERS IN GENERATING NEGATIVE DIFFERENTIAL RESISTANCE BEHAVIORS AND DEVICES EMPLOYING THE SAME

摘要

A negative differential resistance (NDR) device, along with a method of making the NDR device, and a method of generating NDR using the NDR device. The NDR device includes: a substrate comprising a conductor material or a semi-conductor material; and a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) disposed on the substrate, wherein the SAM includes a first electroactive moiety and a spacer moiety, the spacer moiety defining a barrier between the electroactive moiety and the substrate, wherein the NDR device exhibits negative differential resistance in the presence of a varying applied voltage. Other aspects of the invention include: (1) NDR in multilayers in which the peak to valley ratio of the NDR response can be controlled by the number of layers; (2) modulation of NDR using binding groups to one of the electrical contacts; (3) modulation of NDR using binding groups to the electroactive moiety itself; and (4) NDR devices that display multiple peaks in the current-voltage curve that contain electroactive moieties that have multiple low potential electrochemical oxidations and/or reductions.