Multiphotochromic Systems Based on Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Nanoparticles as 'Super-Photochromes' for Photonic Molecular Logic Gates

摘要

When photochromes function as a photonic molecular logic gate (MLG), the problem of uncertainty of the final state of the gate arises at the level of a single molecule, since photoisomerization of a photochrome is a probabilistic process. To solve this problem, we propose to use as MLGs self-organized multiphotochromic systems (MPSs) based on hybrid organic-inorganic nanoparticles (HNPs)-conjugates of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) and organic photochromes. A quantum dot in HNP is a platform for coordination of a photochromic ligand (PL) containing special anchor groups. The photochromic ligand has at least two spectrally distinguishable isomers. A multiphotochromic system containing n PL molecules is a "super-photochrome" with at least (n + 1) spectrally distinguishable isomers. We have shown for the first time that MPS based on CdS QD and anthrylquinolylethylene PL, switching by the mechanism of reversible trans-cis photoisomerization, is capable of functioning as fully photonic MLG, since the output signal is read from fluorescence of PL or QD. The homogeneity of input and output signals, which are quanta of light, opens up new opportunities for the design and creation of molecular photonic devices, including means for processing digital information at the molecular level.