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Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 066107 (2003) [4 pages]

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

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Ch. Loppacher1,*, M. Guggisberg1, O. Pfeiffer1, E. Meyer1, M. Bammerlin2, R. Lüthi2, R. Schlittler2, J. K. Gimzewski2,†, H. Tang3, and C. Joachim3
1Institute of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland
2IBM Research Division, Zurich Research Laboratory, CH-8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland
3CEMES/CNRS, 29, rue Jeanne Marvig, 31055-Toulouse Cedex, France

Received 11 October 2002; published 14 February 2003

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 100×10-21  J, which is 4 orders of magnitude lower than state-of-the-art transistors.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.066107
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.066107
PACS:
82.37.Gk, 34.20.Gj, 68.37.Ps

*Corresponding author.

Present address: Institute of Applied Photophysics, TU-Dresden, 01062 Dresden.

Email address: Loppacher@iapp.de

†Present address: UCLA, Department of Chemistry, 607 Charles E. Young Dr., East, Los Angeles, CA 90095.

 
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