Molecular metals normally require charge transfer between two different chemical species. We prepared crystals of [Ni(tmdt)2] (tmdt, trimethylenetetrathiafulvalenedithiolate) and carried out crystal structure analyses and resistivity measurements. The analyses and measurements revealed that these single-component molecular crystals are metallic from room temperature down to 0.6 kelvin. Ab initio molecular orbital calculations suggested that pi molecular orbitals form conduction bands. The compact molecular arrangement, intermolecular overlap integrals of the highest occupied and lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals, and tight-binding electronic band structure calculation revealed that [Ni(tmdt)2] is a three-dimensional synthetic metal composed of planar molecules.

Highly conducting crystals based on single-component gold complexes with extended-TTF dithiolate ligands [Au(dmdt)(2)](0+) (1) and [Au(tmdt)(2)](0+) (2) were prepared (dmdt = dimethyltetrathiafulvalenedithiolate and tmdt = trimethylenetetrathiafulvalenedithiolate). On the basis of the synchrotron radiation powder diffraction data, the MEM electron density of 2 was successfully obtained. The conductivities of compacted powder samples of 1 and 2 at room temperature were 12 and 15 S cm(-1), respectively. Pauli-like susceptibility of 1 suggested the system to be essentially metallic at least above 50 K, while 2 showed a magnetic transition around 100 K without loss of its high conductivity.

The infrared spectra of the crystal of transition metal complex molecules with extended-TTF ligands, Ni(tmdt)2, which is the first single-component molecular metal that has a stable metallic state even at low temperatures, exhibited an extremely low-energy electronic absorption around 2200 cm-1 (tmdt = trimethylenetetrathiafulvalenedithiolate). The systematic shift of the absorption peaks for molecules similar to Ni(tmdt)2, which range from metallic to semiconducting crystals, shows that the single-component molecular conductors are composed of molecules with unprecedentedly small HOMO-LUMO gaps.