Charge transport properties of spin crossover systems.

The study of spin crossover compounds by means of theoretical or experimental approaches has provided interesting results in recent decades. The main feature of such compounds is the change in the spin state induced by many different external stimuli, i.e. temperature, light, pressure, solvent coordination and the electric field. Spin crossover systems are potentially more useful than other magnetic molecules because their switching behaviour can occur closer to room temperature, and they are thus candidates for use in spintronic devices. Here, I review the state of the art in quantum chemical approaches to the study of such systems and discuss experiments that have focused on transport properties in single-molecule, nano-objects or thin-film spin crossover systems.