Intrinsic and Extrinsic Switching in Molecular Devices.

The details of metal-molecule coupling play a pivotal role in the functionality of molecular junctions. Molecules that have intrinsic switchable properties may lose this capability after coupling to electrodes. On the other hand, connecting passive molecules to electrodes may lead to a switchable molecular device ('extrinsic switching'). Here, we first discuss this general matter, and then focus on two specific cases, one of intrinsic switching (for photochromic diarylethenes) and one of extrinsic switching (for hydrogen molecules) in gold-molecule-gold structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]