Highly conductive approximately 40-nm-long molecular wires assembled by stepwise incorporation of metal centres.

One of the main goals of molecular electronics is to achieve electronic functions from devices consisting of tailored organic molecules connecting two metal electrodes. The fabrication of nanometre-scale spaced electrodes still results in expensive, and often scarcely reproducible, devices. On the other hand, the 'conductance' of long organic molecules--generally dominated by the tunnelling mechanism--is very poor.

Cooperative light-induced molecular movements of highly ordered azobenzene self-assembled monolayers.

Photochromic systems can convert light energy into mechanical energy, thus they can be used as building blocks for the fabrication of prototypes of molecular devices that are based on the photomechanical effect. Hitherto a controlled photochromic switch on surfaces has been achieved either on isolated chromophores or within assemblies of randomly arranged molecules. Here we show by scanning tunneling microscopy imaging the photochemical switching of a new terminally thiolated azobiphenyl rigid rod molecule.