A Memristive Element Based on an Electrically Controlled Single‐Molecule Reaction

Abstract

The exponential proliferation of data during the information age has required the continuous exploration of novel storage paradigms, materials, and devices with increasing data density. As a step toward the ultimate limits in data density, the development of an electrically controllable single‐molecule memristive element is reported. In this device, digital information is encoded through switching between two isomer states by applying a voltage signal to the molecular junction, and the information is read out by monitoring the electrical conductance of each isomer. The two states are cycled using an electrically controllable local‐heating mechanism for the forward reaction and catalyzed by a single charge‐transfer process for the reverse switching. This single‐molecule device can be modulated in situ, is fully reversible, and does not display stochastic switching. The I–V curves of this single‐molecule system also exhibit memristive character. These features suggest a new approach for the development of molecular switching systems and storage‐class memories.

Exploring the impact of select anchor groups for norbornadiene/quadricyclane single-molecule switches

“…The interpretation of the origin of the two classes is not straightforward. Although the conductance values align with those reported in the literature, 22,23 Class 1 displays a plateau length greatly exceeding what would be anticipated based on the SCXRD structure. Consequently, this elongated plateau cannot be solely attributed to a sulfur-to-sulfur molecular connection.…”

“…NBD is a bicyclic hydrocarbon that undergoes photoisomerization to the metastable quadricyclane (QC) form when exposed to light. 22,23 The NBD/QC photoswitch pair has attracted significant attention, demonstrating remarkable versatility in diverse applications including energy storage, [24][25][26][27] diagnostics, 28 and single-molecule devices. 22,23 Prior studies employing scanning tunneling microscopy break junction (STM-BJ) techniques have showcased the remarkable memristive behavior of a derivative of the NBD/QC pair, exhibiting distinctive high (G = 1.2 AE 0.1 Â 10 À4 G 0 ) and low (G = 1.9 AE 0.8 Â 10 À5 G 0 ) conductance states, corresponding to the NBD and QC states of the core molecule, respectively.…”

Resistive Switching in Electrodeposited Prussian Blue Layers

“…Memristors are solid–state-devices where the resistance can be controlled by voltage, retaining the resistance value without power consumption, and that can be used as storage devices [ 7 , 8 , 9 ]. With the application of an external voltage, the memristor can be switched back and forth between a low resistance state (LRS) and a high resistance state (HRS).…”

Dithienylethene‐Based Single Molecular Photothermal Linear Actuator

“…A number of techniques are at hand to study the behavior of these molecular architectures under the influence of external stimuli [6, 8–11] . Molecular switches, in fact, have been studied extensively during the past few decades and numerous interesting effects have been demonstrated like high on/off ratio conductance switching, [12–14] memory storage, [15–17] catalysis gating, [18–20] transistor effect, [21–23] molecular shuttles, [24–26] sensing, [27–30] chirality modulation [31, 32] etc. Among these molecular systems, the most studied molecular architectures are spiropyrans, [33, 34] azobenzens, [23, 35, 36] stilbenes, [37–39] dimethyldihydropyrenes [40–42] and diarylethenes [15, 43–49] …”