title: Observation and electric current control of a local spin in a single-molecule magnet.
abstract: In molecular spintronics, the spin state of a molecule may be switched on and off by changing the molecular structure. Here, we switch on and off the molecular spin of a double-decker bis(phthalocyaninato)terbium(III) complex (TbPc₂) adsorbed on an Au(111) surface by applying an electric current via a scanning tunnelling microscope. The dI/dV curve of the tunnelling current recorded onto a TbPc₂ molecule shows a Kondo peak, the origin of which is an unpaired spin of a π-orbital of a phthalocyaninato (Pc) ligand. By applying controlled current pulses, we could rotate the upper Pc ligand in TbPc₂, leading to the disappearance and reappearance of the Kondo resonance. The rotation shifts the molecular frontier-orbital energies, quenching the π-electron spin. Reversible switching between two stable ligand orientations by applying a current pulse should make it possible to code information at the single-molecule level.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM, Tagen), Tohoku Uni versity, Aoba-Ku, Sendai 980-0877, Japan. komeda@tagen.tohoku.ac.jp
authors.forename: Tadahiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komeda
authors.forename: Hironari
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Isshiki
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yan-Feng
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Nicolás
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lorente
authors.forename: Keiichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Katoh
authors.forename: Brian K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Breedlove
authors.forename: Masahiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamashita