Stimulus induced strain in spin transition heterostructures.

Strain is often used to alter material properties in applications ranging from bandgap tuning for semiconductor electronics to performing work through mechanical actuation. Spin transitions are accompanied by volume changes in the solid state and are being explored in actuation as a source of mechanical strain inducible by the many controllable stimuli known to trigger spin state changes. There is still much to understand, especially at small length scales, about how strain is transmitted from one material to another across a mechanically coupled interface. Theoretical efforts modeling spin-transition particles in a matrix provide significant insights, but this remains an area where systematic experimental studies are limited. This Perspective highlights the progress using cobalt hexacyanoferrate network solids, or Prussian blue analogues (CoFe-PBA), as a framework for investigating spin transition induced strain in nanometer scale and mesoscale heterostructures. Using a family of isostructural cyanometallate networks to form heterostructures with well-defined interfaces, measurements of the altered properties in response to strain generated by the thermally or optically induced spin state change of the CoFe-PBA provide the chance to experimentally interrogate factors that control interface transmitted strain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]