A new study presents in silico proof of concept of a new type of molecular electronic component that combines functionalities of a spin-filter, molecular switch, and a diode in a single molecule, called a spinristor.
Spinristor, described by the team led by Michal Straka of IOCB Prague and Cina Foroutan-Nejad of IOCB Prague and IOC PAS, consists of a single molecule of Ti@C70 connected to electrodes in an electric circuit. With a low voltage applied, the Ti@C70 molecule rectifies the current and filters the electrons according to their spin. A higher voltage at Ti@C70 causes relocation of the titanium atom, thus switching the whole system into different rectification and spin-filtering characteristics.
Such functionality could bring new applications in the future computers' architecture, in particular in-memory computing, and in spintronics.
The proposed device doesn’t seem to have an equivalent in macroscopic or molecular electronics so far.
Read the paper: Jaroš, A.; Sasar, M.; Tučková, L.; Bonab, E. F.; Badri, Z.; Straka, M.; Foroutan-Nejad, C. Spinristor: A Spin-Filtering Memristor. Adv. Electron. Mater. 2023, 2300360. https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.202300360
