Vanadyl dithiolate single molecule transistors: the next spintronic frontier?

TL;DR

This paper discusses the potential of vanadyl dithiolate single molecule transistors for advancing spintronics, highlighting recent progress in molecular spin qubits and proposing new quantum device functionalities.

Contribution

It introduces vanadyl dithiolate molecules as promising components for spintronic devices and critically examines current theoretical limitations in molecular spintronics.

Findings

Progress in preparing coherent vanadium-based spin qubits

Proposal of using vanadyl transistors for nuclear spin detection

Potential for new quantum phenomena in molecular spintronics

Abstract

The role of Chemistry in the road towards quantum devices is the design of elementary pieces with a built-in function. A brilliant example is the use of molecular transistors as nuclear spin detectors, which, up to now, has been implemented only on [TbPc$_2$]$^-$. We argue that this is an artificial constraint and critically discuss the limitations of current theoretical approaches to assess the potential of molecules for their use in spintronics. In connection with this, we review the recent progress in the preparation of highly coherent spin qubits based on vanadium dithiolate complexes and argue that the use of vanadyl dithiolates as single molecule transistors to read and control a triple nuclear spin qubit could give rise to new phenomena, notably including a low-current nuclear spin detection scheme by means of a spin valve effect.