The latest PCCP 10th Anniversary Article is a Communication by Andrzej Sobolewski. In the article, Sobolewski proposes a new kind of molecular switch, which could overcome some of the problems of other organic photo-switches. 

'The search for switchable molecules is a hot topic nowadays and organic molecules are considered as promising candidates for the realization of future digital processors and storage media,' said Sobolewski. 'Unfortunately, organic molecules are prone to photo-induced degradation, which is a major difficulty for the construction of reliable photo-functional systems,' he added. 

Andrzej Sobolewski

Sobolewski's work has revealed that 7-hydroxy-(8-oxazine-2-one)-quinoline is not only very promising with respect to ultra-fast optical switching and data storage at the molecular level, but is also exceptionally photo-stable.

Andrzej Sobolewski is a professor at the Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw and is a member of the PCCP Advisory Board. His research interests are primarily focused on the electronic structure of excited states of polyatomic molecules and on photoinduced chemical reaction dynamics such as electron transfer, proton transfer, radiationless decay, photoisomerization, as well as on the effects of solvation on these processes studied in clusters of polar solvents.