Switching spin states in manganese ions with light

Breakthrough in spintronics: New manganese-based molecular material enables data storage at higher temperatures

Researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a new way to employ molecules as tiny data storage devices using a new manganese-based material. Until now, this was only possible with iron-containing molecular materials, which require very low temperatures – ranging from 100 to a maximum of 130 Kelvin (approximately minus 173 to minus 143 degrees Celsius) – making their application significantly more difficult. "With our novel manganese-based material, we succeeded in raising the operating temperature for the potential storage devices to around minus 132 degrees Celsius on our very first attempt," said Professor Katja Heinze from the JGU Department of Chemistry. "This means the material outperforms all previously known iron-containing molecular materials for these applications and marks a breakthrough in spintronics." The results were published by the research group led by Heinze in Nature Chemistry with MPGC Student Member Sandra Kronenberger as first author.