Molecular spins are promising building blocks of future quantum technologies thanks to the unparalleled flexibility provided by chemistry, which allows the design of complex structures targeted for specific applications. However, their weak interaction with external stimuli makes it difficult to access their state at the single‐molecule level, a fundamental tool for their use, for example, in quantum computing and sensing. Here, an innovative solution exploiting the interplay between chirality and magnetism using the chirality‐induced spin selectivity effect on electron transfer processes is foreseen. It is envisioned to use a spin‐to‐charge conversion mechanism that can be realized by connecting a molecular spin qubit to a dyad where an electron donor and an electron acceptor are linked by a chiral bridge. By numerical simulations based on realistic parameters, it is shown that the chirality‐induced spin selectivity effect could enable initialization, manipulation, and single‐spin readout of molecular qubits and qudits even at relatively high temperatures.
Spin‐related phenomena in optoelectronic materials can revolutionize several technological applications in the areas of data processing and storage, quantum computing, lighting, energy harvesting, sensing, and healthcare. A fundamental boost to this promising field can be envisaged thanks to the use of two emerging materials, which have recently been receiving increasing scientific attention: organic semiconductors (OSCs) and halide perovskites (HPs). Here, the first progress in the resulting fields, organic‐ and perovskite‐based spintronics, is reviewed, which will enable the manipulation of spin, charges, and photons in spin/optoelectronic devices. A link between these two classes of materials is created by highlighting the pros and cons of each technology, and their potential applications in new multifunctional spintronic devices are discussed. Current challenges in the field are also outlined, and convenient approaches to overcome them are proposed.
14 September 2020 in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C
The burgeoning interest raised by Carbon Dots (CDs) is an epitome of the urgency of developing green and biocompatible alternatives to inorganic and hybrid quantum dots. The fast-paced development of synthetic approaches for CDs in the past years has left many open questions in their characterization. Herein, we further confirm how the standardization of CDs cannot disregard the presence of fluorescent molecular by-products. On the contrary, we show how the emissive properties of our solvothermally synthesized CDs largely stem from free molecular adducts produced during the synthesis of carbon cores. The presence of these small molecules, not detectable with electron microscopy, could be deceptive for a reliable characterization of the CDs and could lead to an overestimate of their optical properties. Hence, we propose to introduce more bias-free structure-property correlations based on spectroscopy techniques capable of giving direct insights into their structural properties. Through a combination of standard and unconventional characterization techniques, such as fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR), we demonstrate how molecular byproducts dominate the emission properties: these are freely moving in the solution rather than decorating a carbonaceous scaffold. Considering carefully the possibility that newly synthesized CDs are heterogenous solutions, will boost the research and optimization of CDs, thereby paving the way to the large-scale production of cheap and biocompatible light-emissive nanostructures.