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The use of purely organic radicals is promising especially for future applications in molecular spintronics. However, the techniques used to form their molecular junctions, including break-junction and scanning tunneling microscopy techniques, are unsuitable for the integration of molecular devices in a large-scale setting. In this study, a Si-based double-tunnel junction with purely organic radicals, where adamantyl nitronyl nitroxide p-terphenyl (NN-TP) molecules are embedded as quantum dots in the oxide layer of a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) structure, was demonstrated. Notably, this MOS structure functions as a tunnel junction, which has a high affinity for the current Si technology. In this study, multilevel resonant tunneling through the discrete energy levels of the NN-TP molecules at 7 K was achieved; moreover, the tunneling current was observed at 100 K. Furthermore, our device exhibited resonant tunneling through a singly occupied molecular orbital, indicating the survival of an unpaired electron in the radical molecules. Thus, our findings hold promise for incorporating the attractive functions of organic radicals into Si-based solid-state devices and thereby enabling the large-scale integration of molecular devices.

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  This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c00839

Keyword: organic radicals, resonant tunneling, molecular orbitals, double-tunnel junctions, unpaired electron, quantum transport

Date published: 2025-04-16

Publisher: American Chemical Society (ACS)

Journal:

• ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (ISSN: 19448244) vol. 17 issue. 15 p. 23018-23024

Funding:

• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 23K22802
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 24KF0270
• National Institute for Materials Science

Manuscript type: Author's version (Accepted manuscript)

MDR DOI: https://doi.org/10.48505/nims.5821

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.5c00839

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Updated at: 2026-02-14 20:53:14 +0900

Published on MDR: 2026-04-06 08:25:14 +0900