DFG Research Unit 1154 „Towards Molecular Spintronics“

The discovery of tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) and giant magnetoresistance (GMR) in metallic spin valves has led to a revolution of magnetic memory and storage capacities of today’s modern hard drives increase at a rate unthinkable just ten years back in time. Simultaneously, organic materials have strived towards the forefront of electronic devices and circuitry, since they are cheap to produce, flexible, and diverse in their applications. The combination of both, spintronics and organic electronics, is likely to lead to new generations of spin based devices, which may open a broad range of exciting and yet unknown application fields and products in organic spintronics.

Our research group initiative aims at the ultimate down-scaled nanostructured device integrating the spintronic functionality of single molecules. We will try to switch the spin transfer through magnetic molecules by changing the alignment of the molecular spins. This ambitious approach towards molecular spintronics combines two interdisciplinary research fields, organic electronics and molecular magnetism. Our endeavors are supposed to stimulate fruitful exchange between otherwise disjunct communities, which will help to discover a variety of fundamental phenomena and major physical effects as well as to unravel long-standing scientific problems and discrepancies.