Photochromic Switches

Photochromic molecules can be interconverted between two bistable forms by light. These systems are a promising class of materials for developing molecular devices where electrons have been replaced by photons as signal carriers.
In our group we demonstrated an optical transistor, i.e. a transistor that runs on photons rather than electrons, and investigate molecules for optical gating in logic circuits.

read more:

• M. Pärs, C.C. Hofmann, K. Willinger, P. Bauer, M. Thelakkat, J. Köhler
  An Organic Optical Transistor Operated under Ambient Conditions
  Ang. Chem. Int. Ed. 50 (2011) 11405-11408, DOI: 10.1002/anie.201104193
  
• M. Pärs, K. Gräf, P. Bauer, M. Thelakkat, J. Köhler
  Optical Gating of Perylene Bisimide Fluorescence Using Dithienylcyclopentene Photochromic Switches
  Applied Physics Letters 103 (2013) 221115-1 – 221115-4; DOI: 10.1063/1.4837355
  classified as „Research Highlight“, Nature Photonics 8 (2014) 84
• M. Pärs, M. Gradmann, K. Gräf, P. Bauer, M. Thelakkat, J. Köhler
  Optical Gating with Organic Building Blocks. A Quantitative Model for the Fluorescence Modulation of Photochromic Perylene Bisimide Dithienylcyclopentene Triads
  Scientific Reports 4 (2014) 4316-1 – 4316-6, DOI: 10.1038/srep04316
• J. Maier, M. Pärs, T. Weller, M. Thelakkat, J. Köhler
  Deliberate Switching of Single Photochromic Triads
  Scientific Reports 7 (2017) 41739-1 – 41739-8, DOI: 10.1038/srep41739
  
• F.M. Keheze, D. Raithel, T. Wu, D. Schiefer, M. Sommer, R. Hildner, G. Reiter
  Signatures of Melting and Recrystallization of a Bulky Substituted Poly(thiophene)
  Identified by Optical Spectroscopy
  Macromolecules 50 (2017) 6829-6839, DOI: 10.1021/acs.macromol.7b01080
  
• J. Maier, T. Weller, M. Thelakkat, J. Köhler
  Long-term switching of single photochromic triads based on dithienylcyclopenten and
  fluorophores
  J. Chem. Phys., 155 (2021), 014901, DOI: 10.1063/5.0056815
  
• A. Albert, M. Fried, M. Thelakkat, J. Köhler
  Emission modulation of fluorescent Turn-on mode Dibenzothienyl sulfonyl ethene
  photoswitches embedded in a polymer film
  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 24, 29791 (2022), DOI: 10.1039/d2cp05062e