Li@C60 as a multi-state molecular switch
Date
23/05/2019Funder
Grant ID
SCISS HR07003
Metadata
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Abstract
The field of molecular electronics aims at advancing the miniaturization of electronic devices, by exploiting single molecules to perform the function of individual components. A molecular switch is defined as a molecule that displays stability in two or more states (e.g. “on” and “off” involving conductance, conformation etc.) and upon application of a controlled external perturbation, electric or otherwise, undergoes a reversible change such that the molecule is altered. Previous work has shown multi-state molecular switches with up to four and six distinct states. Using low temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, we report on a multi-state single molecule switch using the endohedral fullerene Li@C60 that displays 14 molecular states which can be statistically accessed. We suggest a switching mechanism that relies on resonant tunnelling via the superatom molecular orbitals (SAMOs) of the fullerene cage as a means of Li activation, thereby bypassing the typical vibronic excitation of the carbon cage that is known to cause molecular decomposition.
Citation
Chandler , H J , Stefanou , M , Campbell , E E B & Schaub , R 2019 , ' Li@C 60 as a multi-state molecular switch ' , Nature Communications , vol. 10 , 2283 . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10300-2
Publication
Nature Communications
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2041-1723Type
Journal article
Rights
Copyright © The Author(s) 2019. 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/.
Description
R.S. acknowledges financial support from the Scottish Funding Council through SRD-Grant (HR07003). E.E.B.C. gratefully acknowledges Idea International Inc., Sendai, for providing samples of [Li@C60]+(PF6)–. H.J.C. and M.S. acknowledge financial support of EPSRC DTG studentships (EP/M508214/1 and EP/N509644/1, respectively).Collections
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