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Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction

The active control of a molecular spin represents one of the main challenges in molecular spintronics. Up to now spin manipulation has been achieved through the modification of the molecular structure either by chemical doping or by external stimuli. However, the spin of a molecule adsorbed on a sur...

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Autores principales: Ormaza, M., Abufager, P., Verlhac, B., Bachellier, N., Bocquet, M.-L., Lorente, N., Limot, L.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5719446/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29215014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02151-6
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author Ormaza, M.
Abufager, P.
Verlhac, B.
Bachellier, N.
Bocquet, M.-L.
Lorente, N.
Limot, L.
author_facet Ormaza, M.
Abufager, P.
Verlhac, B.
Bachellier, N.
Bocquet, M.-L.
Lorente, N.
Limot, L.
author_sort Ormaza, M.
collection PubMed
description The active control of a molecular spin represents one of the main challenges in molecular spintronics. Up to now spin manipulation has been achieved through the modification of the molecular structure either by chemical doping or by external stimuli. However, the spin of a molecule adsorbed on a surface depends primarily on the interaction between its localized orbitals and the electronic states of the substrate. Here we change the effective spin of a single molecule by modifying the molecule/metal interface in a controlled way using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A nickelocene molecule reversibly switches from a spin 1 to 1/2 when varying the electrode–electrode distance from tunnel to contact regime. This switching is experimentally evidenced by inelastic and elastic spin-flip mechanisms observed in reproducible conductance measurements and understood using first principle calculations. Our work demonstrates the active control over the spin state of single molecule devices through interface manipulation.
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spelling pubmed-57194462017-12-08 Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction Ormaza, M. Abufager, P. Verlhac, B. Bachellier, N. Bocquet, M.-L. Lorente, N. Limot, L. Nat Commun Article The active control of a molecular spin represents one of the main challenges in molecular spintronics. Up to now spin manipulation has been achieved through the modification of the molecular structure either by chemical doping or by external stimuli. However, the spin of a molecule adsorbed on a surface depends primarily on the interaction between its localized orbitals and the electronic states of the substrate. Here we change the effective spin of a single molecule by modifying the molecule/metal interface in a controlled way using a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A nickelocene molecule reversibly switches from a spin 1 to 1/2 when varying the electrode–electrode distance from tunnel to contact regime. This switching is experimentally evidenced by inelastic and elastic spin-flip mechanisms observed in reproducible conductance measurements and understood using first principle calculations. Our work demonstrates the active control over the spin state of single molecule devices through interface manipulation. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-12-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5719446/ /pubmed/29215014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02151-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Ormaza, M.
Abufager, P.
Verlhac, B.
Bachellier, N.
Bocquet, M.-L.
Lorente, N.
Limot, L.
Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction
title Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction
title_full Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction
title_fullStr Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction
title_full_unstemmed Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction
title_short Controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction
title_sort controlled spin switching in a metallocene molecular junction
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5719446/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29215014
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02151-6
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