Spin-state dependent conductance switching in single molecule-graphene junctions

Enrique Burzurí*, Amador García-Fuente, Victor García-Suárez, Kuppusamy Senthil Kumar, Mario Ruben, Jaime Ferrer, Herre S.J. Van Der Zant

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

42 Citations (Scopus)
18 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Spin-crossover (SCO) molecules are versatile magnetic switches with applications in molecular electronics and spintronics. Downscaling devices to the single-molecule level remains, however, a challenging task since the switching mechanism in bulk is mediated by cooperative intermolecular interactions. Here, we report on electron transport through individual Fe-SCO molecules coupled to few-layer graphene electrodes via π-π stacking. We observe a distinct bistability in the conductance of the molecule and a careful comparison with density functional theory (DFT) calculations allows to associate the bistability with a SCO-induced orbital reconfiguration of the molecule. We find long spin-state lifetimes that are caused by the specific coordination of the magnetic core and the absence of intermolecular interactions according to our calculations. In contrast with bulk samples, the SCO transition is not triggered by temperature but induced by small perturbations in the molecule at any temperature. We propose plausible mechanisms that could trigger the SCO at the single-molecule level.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7905-7911
JournalNanoscale
Volume10
Issue number17
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Bibliographical note

Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.

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