Nanooptomechanical Transduction in a Single Crystal with 100% Photoconversion

Materials that exhibit nanooptomechanical transduction in their single-crystal form have prospective use light-driven molecular machinery, nanotechnology, and quantum computing. Linkage photoisomerization is typically the source of such coordination complexes, although isomers tend to undergo only partial photoconversion. We present a transducer, trans-[Ru(SO2)(NH3)4(3-bromopyridine)]tosylate2, whose S-bound ?1-SO2 isomer fully converts into an O-bound ?1-OSO photoisomer metastable while kept at 100 K. Its 100% photoconversion confirmed structurally via photocrystallography, optical absorption Raman spectroscopies reveal its metal-to-ligand charge-transfer temperature-dependent characteristics. This perfect switching affords material good prospects for with single-photon control.