Electric field control of valence tautomeric interconversion in Cobalt dioxolene

TL;DR

This study shows that applying a static electric field to Cobalt dioxolene complexes can significantly alter their valence tautomeric interconversion temperature, enabling electrical control of molecular magnetism.

Contribution

We demonstrate that electric fields can tune the valence tautomeric transition temperature in Cobalt dioxolene, revealing a new method for electrical control of molecular magnetic states.

Findings

Electric field of 0.1 V/nm changes critical temperature by 20 K.

Density functional theory confirms field-induced redox potential manipulation.

Potential for electrical switching of magnetism in molecules.

Abstract

We demonstrate that the critical temperature for valence tautomeric interconversion in Cobalt dioxolene complexes can be significantly changed when a static electric field is applied to the molecule. This is achieved by effectively manipulating the redox potential of the metallic acceptor forming the molecule. Importantly our accurate density functional theory calculations demonstrate that already a field of 0.1 V/nm, achievable in Stark spectroscopy experiments, can produce a change in the critical temperature for the interconversion of 20 K. Our results indicate a new way for switching on and off the magnetism in a magnetic molecule. This offers the unique chance of controlling magnetism at the atomic scale by electrical means.