Covalently bonded single-molecule junctions with stable and reversible photoswitched conductivity.
Through molecular engineering, single diarylethenes were covalently sandwiched between graphene electrodes to form stable molecular conduction junctions. Our experimental and theoretical studies of these junctions consistently show and interpret reversible conductance photoswitching at room temperature and stochastic switching between different conductive states at low temperature at a single-molecule level. We demonstrate a fully reversible, two-mode, single-molecule electrical switch with unprecedented levels of accuracy (on/off ratio of ~100), stability (over a year), and reproducibility (46 devices with more than 100 cycles for photoswitching and ~10(5) to 10(6) cycles for stochastic switching).
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Chuancheng
C
Jia
Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.
Agostino
A
Migliore
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Na
N
Xin
Department of Electronics and Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Shaoyun
S
Huang
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Jinying
J
Wang
Department of Electronics and Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Qi
Q
Yang
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
Shuopei
S
Wang
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Hongliang
H
Chen
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
Duoming
D
Wang
Department of Electronics and Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Boyong
B
Feng
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Zhirong
Z
Liu
Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
Guangyu
G
Zhang
Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, P. R. China.
Da-Hui
DH
Qu
Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials and Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai 200237, P. R. China.
He
H
Tian
Department of Chemistry, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Mark A
MA
Ratner
Department of Electronics and Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China. guoxf@pku.edu.cn anitzan@sas.upenn.edu hqxu@pku.edu.cn.
H Q
HQ
Xu
Department of Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6323, USA. School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel. guoxf@pku.edu.cn anitzan@sas.upenn.edu hqxu@pku.edu.cn.
Abraham
A
Nitzan
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China. guoxf@pku.edu.cn anitzan@sas.upenn.edu hqxu@pku.edu.cn.
Xuefeng
X
Guo