Molecular-Spintronics: the art of driving spin through molecules

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent advances in molecular-spintronics, exploring how organic molecules can be used to manipulate and detect electron spins, potentially leading to innovative spin-based electronic devices.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the integration of spintronics and molecular electronics, emphasizing the role of quantitative theories in understanding and designing molecular spin-transport devices.

Findings

Quantitative theories offer fundamental insights into molecular spin-transport.

Recent experiments demonstrate the feasibility of integrating spintronics with molecular electronics.

Design principles for novel molecular spintronic devices are discussed.

Abstract

Spintronics is the ability of injecting, manipulating and detecting electron spins into solid state systems. Molecular-electronics investigates the possibility of making electronic devices using organic molecules. Traditionally these two burgeoning areas have lived separate lives, but recently a growing number of experiments have indicated a possible pathway towards their integration. This is the playground for molecular-spintronics, where spin-polarized currents are carried through molecules, and in turn they can affect the state of the molecule. We review the most recent advances in molecular-spintronics. In particular we discuss how a fully quantitative theory for spin-transport in nanostructures can offer fundamental insights into the main factors affecting spin-transport at the molecular level, and can help in designing novel concept devices.