Molecular spintronics

Molecular spintronics is recognized as an attractive new research direction in the field of spintronics, following to metallic spintronics and inorganic semiconductor spintronics, and attracts many people in recent decades. The purpose of this manuscript is to describe the history of molecular spintronics by introducing important achievements and to show the current status of this field. In addition, the authors briefly introduce several theories for implementing studies in molecular spintronics.

Research Highlights► We describe the current status of molecular spintronics. ► Spin-dependent transport and spin-dependent binding in molecules are introduced and discussed. ► Novel concepts including a pure spin current and several important theories are also shown.