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Molecular tuning of the magnetic response in organic semiconductors

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

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Authors

McNellis, ER 
Sirringhaus, Henning  ORCID logo  https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9827-6061
Sinova, J 

Abstract

The tunability of high-mobility organic semi-conductors (OSCs) holds great promise for molecular spintronics. In this study, we show this extreme variability - and therefore potential tunability - of the molecular gyromagnetic coupling ("g-") tensor with respect to the geometric and electronic structure in a much studied class of OSCs. Composed of a structural theme of phenyl- and chalcogenophene (group XVI element containing, five-membered) rings and alkyl functional groups, this class forms the basis of several intensely studied high-mobility polymers and molecular OSCs. We show how in this class the g-tensor shifts, Δg, are determined by the effective molecular spin-orbit coupling (SOC), defined by the overlap of the atomic spin-density and the heavy atoms in the polymers. We explain the dramatic variations in SOC with molecular geometry, chemical composition, functionalization, and charge life-time using a first-principles theoretical model based on atomic spin populations. Our approach gives a guide to tuning the magnetic response of these OSCs by chemical synthesis.

Description

Keywords

cond-mat.mtrl-sci, cond-mat.mtrl-sci

Journal Title

Physical Review Materials

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2475-9953
2475-9953

Volume Title

2

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)
Sponsorship
European Research Council (610115)
EPSRC (1498504)