Development of Heteropolyvanadate Spin Clusters as Candidates for Future Redox-Based Memory Devices

• Applicant: Dr. Kirill Monakhov
• Subject Area: Inorganic Molecular Chemistry - Synthesis and Characterisation
• Term: from 2015 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268755760

In the near future increasing quantum size effects will impede further reduction of the feature size of classical nanoelectronic devices. To keep Moore law valid, I propose adopting for the first time the concept of resistive switching of solid-state memristors to the molecular level and investigate functionalized individual molecular metal oxides as single-molecule memory devices. My idea is to simulate the simple Metal-Insulator-Metal structure of a typical Resistive Random Access Memory (ReRAM) cell by depositing an appropriate redox-active heteropolyvanadate (hetero-POV) single molecule on a metallic substrate (bottom electrode) and contact it then with the metallic tip (top electrode) of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). This prototypal setup will allow using a field to manipulate the redox state and thereby the valence state-dependent conductivity of an individual hetero-POV(IV/V) spin cluster adsorbed on the surface. The cross-disciplinary and highly explorative project SwitchSpinPOV aims to define a new direction for the area of electrically-induced resistive switching using thermally stable hetero-POV single molecules with different stable redox states as prototypes for molecular memory devices. The strong correlation between the electron delocalization, magnetic state, Kondo resonance, redox state and electrical conductance on the level of a single hetero-POV molecule moreover opens up vast prospects for future investigations into the storage and processing of quantum information within one individual molecule. Experimental and computational results on the clusters solution and solid-state reactivity, thermostability, electrochemistry, spectroscopy, molecular magnetism and photophysics characteristics will provide feedback for optimization of the synthesis with regards to the critical parameters of the envisioned single-molecule memristor. This also mandates atomic control of substrate deposition processes of the hetero-POVs, to eventually enable analysis of their charge transport and redox switching properties via STM and scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

• DFG Programme: Independent Junior Research Groups