Design and characterization of selectively functionalized nanoscale electronic devices

This dissertation is a continuation of an earlier work on the theory and fabrication of a massively parallel self-assembled computer architecture. Specifically, this work focuses on some aspects of the fabrication of such architectures, with special focus on the design and fabrication of the active nanoscale components of this system. To this end, a nanoscale transistor has been fabricated and its electrical properties have been examined and improved upon. DNA-directed integration of these structures with nanoscale scaffolds in an addressable manner via self-assembly techniques is also addressed via a functionalization scheme that was devised to allow the arbitrary attachment of self-assembled monolayers anywhere along the length of these nanostructures.; This dissertation also illustrates how diverse a single designed nanoscale object can be and how the lines of chemistry, physics and materials science truly become blurred at a scales on the order of 10-9 m. Heterostructured nanowires that were originally only meant to act as active elements in nanoscale computer circuitry have been shown to behave as excellent nanoscale sensors for both self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and gas analytes, and the same elements are now also known to act as coupling devices for free-space photons to the surface plasmon modes of the nanowire. These sensors and photonic wave guides also act as excellent recipients for selective functionalization schemes of arbitrary regions anywhere along its length, which opens up numerous avenues for different uses, potentially ranging from biological applications to multiplexing experiments.; Mechanical measurements on these heterostructured nanowires have also been performed and compared quantitatively to other structures that may be chosen as candidates for active or passive components a self-assembled system. These mechanical and electrical properties can be used to make educated decisions about how components integrated with the scaffolds to form larger computational elements will behave, and provides essential information needed for future experiments that will produce composite structures from these components.