Molecular Compounds in Spintronic Devices: An Intricate Marriage of Chemistry and Physics

Abstract

Spintronics, a flourishing new field of microelectronics, uses the electron spin for reading and writing information in modern computers and other spintronic devices with a low power consumption and high reliability. In a quest to increase the productivity of such devices, the use of molecular materials as a spacer layer allowed them to perform equally well or even better than conventional all-inorganic heterostructures from metals, alloys, or inorganic semiconductors. In this review, we survey various classes of chemical compounds that have already been tested for this purpose�from organic compounds and coordination complexes to organic−inorganic hybrid materials�since the creation of the first moleculebased spintronic device in 2002. Although each class has its advantages, drawbacks, and applications in molecular spintronics, together they allowed nonchemists to gain insights into spin-related effects and to propose new concepts in the design and fabrication of highly efficient spintronic devices. Other molecular compounds that chemistry could offer in great numbers may soon emerge as suitable spacers or even electrodes in flexible magnetic field sensors, nonvolatile memories, and multifunctional spintronic devices.

Synthesis, crystal polymorphism and spin crossover behavior of adamantylboron-capped cobalt(ii) hexachloroclathrochelate and its transformation into the CoIIICoIICoIII-bis-macrobicyclic derivative

“…The same synthetic approach has been earlier 14 used for the synthesis of analogous adamantylboron-capped iron(II) hexachloroclathrochelate, which was isolated in a much higher yield (72%). Indeed, the iron(II) ion having a low-spin electronic d 6 configuration with fully occupied t 2g -orbitals seems to be a more efficient template ion in the aforementioned coordination-driven self-assembly of the corresponding macrobicyclic tris-dioximates, as compared with the cobalt(II) cation having an electronic d 7 configuration with one electron on its antibonding e* g -orbitals. 8a The obtained fine-crystalline sample of 1 was quickly recrystallized from dichloromethane, thus giving its triclinic polymorph (see below).…”

“…5 While they are magnetically switchable, thus possessing a multifunctional behavior, there is a possibility of obtaining molecular spintronic devices based on them. 6 The necessary requirements for their electronic and spatial structures, making the aforementioned metal complexes magnetically bistable, are quite different. 7 Therefore, there are only very few classes of complexes which can exhibit both SMM behavior and SCO properties.…”

Recent Advances in the Spintronic Application of Carbon-Based Nanomaterials

“…When creating composites with tunable magnetic characteristics, carbon components are essential because they serve as templates for magnetic units. Various kinds of carbon nanomaterials are utilized to shield and stabilize encapsulated magnetic subunits by forming cages with high cohesion [ 6 , 7 , 8 ].…”

Selective Pathway toward Heteroleptic Spin-Crossover Iron(II) Complexes with Pyridine-Based N-Donor Ligands

“…Molecular complexes and frameworks that display this phenomenon became, in the last decades, a testbed , for the design of switchable materials that infiltrated many areas of material science and engineering. Such compounds, which often contain iron­(II) ions in an octahedral environment of N -donor ligands, , are exploited in molecular electronics, spintronics, − and straintronics, in manufacturing of multifunctional devices, , sensors, ,− and explosives, in medicinal diagnostics, − and food packaging . For them to function under ambient conditions in these applications, an SCO should be guided toward, Figure , room temperature by the molecular design. , …”