Solitonics in molecular wires could benefit electronics

Soliton descriptions for the conducting polymers polyacetylene—descriptions based around a type of solitary wave—caused great excitement when they first broke in the seminal reports by Su, Schrieffer, Heeger (SSH) and Kivelson over 30 years ago. As some of the simplest topological insulators, these molecules are now attracting revived interest. However, problems synthesizing single polyacetylene molecules had limited these soliton studies to extrapolations of soliton characteristics from averages over large numbers of soliton-bearing molecules, which is quite indirect. Reports of synthesis and characterization of single polyacetylene molecular wires in 2019 changed this. Now, calculations by researchers in Germany and the U.S. have identified how the solitons in these single molecular strands behave, pointing to a level of soliton control—"solitonics"—that could be useful to electronic devices and sensors.

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