Short Facts
Pico-Inside	Computing Inside a single molecule using atomic scale technologies
EC contribution	5,1 Meuros
Contract number	014857
Nº of partners	15
Coordinator	CEMES-CNRS (France) / Christian Joachim
Start date	September 01, 2005
Duration	42 months
Universities	7
Research Institutes	5
Associations	1
Companies	2

Creating an Atomic Scale Technology is now a necessity for any uni-molecular device and machine in molecular electronics, molecular mechanics, molecular transducers and for laboratory scale experiments on one molecule. In the IST priority 2 of the FP6 (Emerging Nanoelectronics FET proactive initiative), the Pico-Inside consortium will explore Atomic Scale Technology with the final goal of integrating a complex logic gate inside a single molecule.

For reference, Atomic Scale Technology recently arose from the very precision (better than 0.05 nm) required to interconnect a molecule and from the demonstration of a conformation change inside a single molecule with a precision better than 0.1 nm. Atomic scale technology is a bottom-bottom approach using the bottom-up one of nanotechnology to solve the nano to mesoscale nano-communication problem.

In Pico-Inside, you can meet 16 of the most talented academic and industrial research institutes in Europe working together on (1) new intramolecular architectures for integrating a complex digital logic function inside a single molecule, (2) understanding the electronic and mechanical behaviour of a single molecule on a surface with the best LT-UHV-STM and UHV-NC-AFM instruments in Europe , (3) the 4 stages of the interconnection problem from the atomic to the macroscopic scale: 50 pm to 5 nm (atomic wires), 5 nm to 50 nm (mesa island), 50 nm to 5 um (nanostencil), 5 um to 1 mm (micro-cantilever array), (4) organic chemistry for synthesising the supermolecule holding the intramolecular logic gate board and all the lateral chemical group equipping the final molecule to perform on a surface, (5) theory of large molecule surface science including molecular structure extraction for the experimental STM and NC-AFM images.

To prepare the future FPX (Framework Programme) of European Research with X = 7 and 8, Pico-Inside will provide a full range of roadmapping for interconnect and nano-communication, for chemistry of supermolecules and for intramolecular computing.