Molecular Thin Films: a New Type of Magnetic Switch

Abstract

The design and fabrication of materials that exhibit both semiconducting and magnetic properties for spintronics and quantum computing has proven difficult. Important starting points are high-purity thin films as well as fundamental theoretical understanding of the magnetism. Here we show that small molecules have great potential in this area, due to ease of insertion of localised spins in organic frameworks and both chemical and structural purity. In particular, we demonstrate that archetypal molecular semiconductors, namely the metal phthalocyanines (Pc), can be readily fabricated as thin film quantum antiferromagnets, important precursors to a solid state quantum computer. Their magnetic state can be switched via fabrication steps which modify the film structure, offering practical routes into information processing. Theoretical calculations show that a new mechanism, which is the molecular analogue of the interactions between magnetic ions in metals, is responsible for the magnetic states. Our combination of theory and experiments opens the field of organic thin film magnetic engineering.

PDF, 14 pages, 3 figures, 1 table

Cited by in corpus (15)

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• Structure-dependent exchange in the organic magnets Cu(II)Pc and Mn(II)Pc
• Disentangling magnetic hardening and molecular spin chain contributions to exchange bias in ferromagnet/molecule bilayers
• Electronic configuration of Mn ions in the $\pi$-d molecular ferromagnet $\beta$-Mn phthalocyanine studied by soft x-ray magnetic circular dichroism
• Magnetic anisotropy in thin films of Prussian blue analogues
• Modelling the electronic structure and magnetic properties of LiFeAs and FeSe using hybrid-exchange density functional theory
• Controlling Ferromagnetic Ground States and Solitons in Thin Films and Nanowires built from Iron Phthalocyanine Chains
• Exchange interaction between the triplet exciton and the localized spin in copper-phthalocyanine
• A Novel Route for the Inclusion of Metal Dopants in Silicon
• The role of rare-earth atoms in the anisotropy and antiferromagnetic exchange coupling at a hybrid metal-organic interface
• Low-energy, ultrafast spin reorientation at competing hybrid interfaces with tunable operating temperature
• Electronic Structure of Manganese Phthalocyanine Modified via Potassium Intercalation: a Comprehensive Experimental Study
• Indirect Spin Exchange Interaction in Substituted Copper Phthalocyanine Crystalline Thin Films
• Spin filtering in transition-metal phthalocyanine molecules from first principles