Artigo Revisado por pares

Direct Determination of the Energy Required to Operate a Single Molecule Switch

2003; American Physical Society; Volume: 90; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1103/physrevlett.90.066107

ISSN

1092-0145

Autores

Ch. Loppacher, Martin Guggisberg, Olivier Pfeiffer, Ernst Meyer, M. Bammerlin, R. Lüthi, R. R. Schlittler, James K. Gimzewski, Hao Tang, Christian Joachim,

Tópico(s)

Mechanical and Optical Resonators

Resumo

Using a noncontact atomic-force and scanning-tunneling microscope in ultrahigh vacuum, we have measured the switching energy of a single molecule switch based on the rotation of a di-butyl-phenyl leg in a Cu-tetra-3,5 di-tertiary-butyl-phenyl porphyrin. The mechanics and intramolecular conformation of the switched leg is controlled by the tip apex of the noncontact atomic-force microscope. The comparison between experimental and calculated force curves shows that the rotation of the leg requires an energy less than 100 x 10(-21) J, which is 4 orders of magnitude lower than state-of-the-art transistors.

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