US Patent 7408184 - Conjugated molecular switch

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7408184.html

Reconfigurable molecular switches have been an active area of theoretical research for a few decades now and steps to prototype molecular electronic devices based on catenane and rotaxane molecules have been taken by Hewlett-Packard and others. This patent from Sony teaches a new type of molecular switch based on conjugated molecules boded to metal ions. Claim 1 reads:

1. A functional molecular element comprising:

a molecule with permittivity anisotropy and/or a dipole moment;

a metal ion; and

a conjugated molecule, wherein the molecule with permittivity anisotropy and/or the dipole moment and the conjugated molecule form a complex with the metal ion, and wherein conductivity of the conjugated molecule is changed by changing an orientation of the molecule with the permittivity anisotropy and/or the dipole moment by an action of an electric field.