Ranjit Pati
Department of Physics
Michigan Technological University
Houghton, MI 49931, USA
Abstract
In the past few decades, the ultimate push for ultra
light and ultra small electronic components for information storing and
processing have prompted intense research efforts in examining and developing
alternative materials, phenomena, and paradigms for electronics applications.
Among the various potential candidates, organic-molecule-based electronics have
demonstrated the promise to meet the physical challenges imposed by quantum
mechanics in the ultimate miniaturization of electronic devices. The
availability of virtually infinite number of organic molecules, each with a
unique electronic property, provides an exciting class of novel materials that
allow controlled transport of electrons key to the operation of an electronic
device. But, most experiments and
theory on molecular devices thus far have utilized the charge state of the
electron to control the device functionality. In addition to charge, electron has another degree of
freedom, spin.
The spin coherence length in organic molecule is expected
to be larger than in conventional metals and semiconductors due to weak
spin-orbit and hyperfine interaction in organic molecular systems. It is consequently highly advantageous to learn how to
control the electron transport in molecular devices offered by spin degrees of freedom-molecular spintronics. This talk will discuss the physics of such devices and
will highlight some of the fundamental issues associated with realizing them.