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...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ormaza, M., Abufager, Paula Natalia, Verlhac, B., Bachellier, N., Bocquet, M. L., Lorente, N., Limot, L.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/64155
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/64155
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:STM
DFT
spin
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.3
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario: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.