When talking about molecules, “open shell” signifies that there are unpaired electrons. In terms of molecular orbital theory, it means that some molecular orbitals are singly occupied. Organic open-shell compounds are extraordinarily attractive materials for their use in molecular spintronics. In spintronics, new memory and logic devices are being developed based on the use of […]
Real life is sometimes very different from laboratory settings. Take superconductivity, for example. In order to reach, it you either need extremely low temperatures, extremely high pressures or a combination of both; something that makes very difficult to conceive an everyday application out of a laboratory. Something similar happens with other new materials, but in […]
Back in 1929, theoretical physicist Hermann Weyl predicted the existence of a new elementary particle with intriguing properties. Specifically, it would be massless (like a photon), have half-integer spin (like an electron) and exist in two mirror-image versions (like left- and right-handed gloves)—a property known as chirality. Imagine there exist a material in which an […]
During the last decades, the electronics industry has been very successful in pushing forward the advancement of electronic building blocks, but the limit of silicon-based electronic devices especially in terms of miniaturization are almost reached. There are many ideas how to overcome this problem, for example, by adding functionality based on approaches originating from molecular […]
In spintronics, new memory and logic devices are being developed based on the use of spins of nuclei, atoms, or molecules, instead of electronic charges. The main advantages are an improved energy efficiency and speed of operation to store and process information. The ability of organic molecules to maintain magnetic multistability in nanoscale junctions will […]
An electric current can be visualized as a flow of electrons through a conducting piece of material. The less the resistance the material structure opposes to the flow of electrons the better a conductor it is. Part of this resistance appears at the surface, where electrons first encounter the material; as with electromagnetic radiation – […]
Symmetry is a unifying principle that governs all aspects of physics. The physical properties of crystalline solids are no different. But, as symmetry is progressively lowered through the 32 crystallographic point groups, novel transport effects emerge. Crystal symmetry dictates also the geometry of a phenomenon that has attracted a lot of attention in recent years […]
A collection of local magnetic moments arranged in a linear fashion that interact via some spin-spin coupling is generally known as a spin chain . This seemingly simple object is one of the most complex and rich physical systems that have been studied since the advent of quantum mechanics without a decline in interest ever […]
Condensed matter • Materials • Nanotechnology • Quantum physics
For centuries, metals were employed in optical applications only as mirrors and gratings. New vistas opened up in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the discovery of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and the use of surface plasmon (collective electronic oscillations at the surface of metals) resonances for sensing. In a simplified picture and in […]
For a successful application in spintronics of any material, a key problem is to get a reliable control of the electronic spin within it. An ideal candidate for this purpose would be any material which is non-magnetic in the bulk but has a tunable ferromagnetic surface layer with a large splitting of the spin-up and […]