Molecular electronics: prospects for instrumentation and measurement science

Molecular electronics is a new, exciting, interdisciplinary field of research. The subject broadly concerns the exploitation of organic materials in electronic and optoelectronic devices. There are many current commercial applications, including liquid crystal displays, conductive polymer sensors and pyroelectric plastics. Longer term developments might include molecular computational devices. In this review, the scope of molecular electronics is first discussed. Three examples of ongoing research that could have an impact on instrumentation and measurement science are then described. This is followed by some speculation on the possibilities for `molecular scale' electronic systems.