Highly Ordered Methanofullerene Nanotube Array: Fabrication and Implications for Room Temperature Organic Spintronics

Abstract

Organic semiconductors have come to the forefront of research in physics, chemistry and electronics due to their impressive properties and low cost of device production. Presented here is a novel centrifuge assisted organic nanowire growth technique and its application in the fabrication of methanofullerene ([6,6]-phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) nanotube array spin valves. This growth technique enables the fabrication of a wide range of potential organic nanowire devices for applications in photonics, optoelectronics and spintronics. In particular, spin valves of PCBM nanotube arrays fabricated using this technique demonstrate encouraging spin transport properties. In spite of a long channel length (~325 nm), these devices exhibit an inverse spin valve effect which persists even at room temperature. The spin relaxation length in these devices is estimated to be ~50 nm at room temperature which is the largest room temperature spin relaxation length in organic nanowire systems reported to date, including carbon nanotubes.