The switch – analogous to a transistor – made from a single fullerene molecule

Nanowerk  February 21, 2023 An international team of researchers (Japan, Germany?) has demonstrated a switch analogous to a transistor, made from fullerene. They theorized, tested and confirmed how the emission of electrons from excited molecules of fullerene should behave when exposed to specific kinds of laser light. They controlled the way a molecule directs the path of an incoming electron using a very short pulse of red laser light. When placed on a metal point the fullerenes orientated a certain way so they will direct electrons predictably. They achieved a switching speed 1 million times faster than a classical transistor. […]

Room-temperature molecular switch discovery paves the way for faster computers, longer-lasting batteries

Phys.org  June 9, 2022 Until now, molecular switching has only been possible when the molecules are extremely cold. Researchers in Australia have developed a semiempirical microscopic model of spin crossover materials (SCO) materials combining crystal field theory with elastic intermolecular interactions. The model reproduces the key experimental results including thermally induced phase transitions, light-induced spin-state trapping (LIESST), and reverse-LIESST. They reproduced and explained the experimentally observed relationship between the critical temperature of the thermal transition. They proposed strategies to design SCO materials with higher TLIESST. The most dramatic increases came from increasing the cooperativity of the spin-state transition by increasing […]