Controlled magnetic bistability of a helical non-Kekulé hydrocarbon on a Au(111) surface

Recent advances in the synthesis of graphene fragments that possess unpaired π-electrons and display high-spin ground states have unlocked possibilities to explore exotic physical phenomena related to magnetism. The high degree of spin-delocalisation makes these non-metal-based systems ideal building blocks for the construction of chains and lattices with strongly correlated magnetic ground states, which is the main requisite for measurement-based quantum computation. In this work, we demonstrate the magnetic bistability of a diradical nanographene that allows direct spin manipulation at the single-molecule level. To this end, we make use of solution-phase synthesis and tip-induced activation on a metallic surface to construct a helical non-Kekulé hydrocarbon spin switch, with a reversible transformation between a magnetic ground state and a non-magnetic one via intramolecular bond formation/breaking. The switching process is monitored by scanning tunnelling spectroscopy measurements, illustrating that this, and related systems, hold potential as spin-switch units for direct manipulation of magnetism and quantum information in entangled spin systems.