Vibrational detection and control of spin in mixed-valence molecular transistors

Abstract

We investigate electron transport through a mixed-valence molecular complex in which an excess electron can tunnel between hetero-valent transition metal ions, each having a fixed localized spin. We show that in this class of molecules the interplay of the spins and the vibrational breathing modes of the ionic ligand-shells allows the total molecular spin to be detected as well as controlled by nonequilibrium transport. Due to a spin-dependent pseudo Jahn-Teller effect electronic transitions with different spin values can be distinguished by their vibronic conductance side peaks, without using an external magnetic field. Conversely, we show that the spin state of the entire molecule can also be controlled via the nonequilibrium quantized molecular vibrations due to a vibration-induced spin-blockade.

6 pages, 3 figures

References in corpus (6)

• Franck-Condon blockade and giant Fano factors in transport through single molecules
• Vibrational sidebands and dissipative tunneling in molecular transistors
• Electronic excitations of a single molecule contacted in a three-terminal configuration
• Tunneling Spectra of Individual Magnetic Endofullerene Molecules
• Magnetoconductance through a vibrating molecule in the Kondo regime
• Transport signature of pseudo-Jahn-Teller dynamics in a single-molecule transistor