Abstract
A new type of spin-current filter is proposed that consists of a single-molecule magnet (SMM) coupled to two normal metal electrodes. It is shown that this tunneling junction can generate a highly spin-polarized current, whose spin polarization can be switched by means of magnetic fields and gate voltages applied to the SMM. This spin switching in the SMM tunnel junction arises from spin-selective single-electron resonant tunneling via the lowest unoccupied molecular orbit of the SMM. The electron current spectrum is still spin polarized in the absence of an external magnetic field, which can help to judge whether the molecule’s spin state has reached the ground-state doublet |pm Srangle. This device can be realized with current technologies and may have practical use in spintronics and quantum information.
Highlights
With the development of materials science, nanoscale molecular electronic devices have been extensively studied in recent years with regard to their potential applications in nanoscale devices and spintronics [1–3]
A new type of molecular material known as a single-molecule magnet (SMM) has been demonstrated to be an appropriate candidate as a basic component of molecule-based spintronic devices [14]
In this letter, we present a new type of spin switching effect in an SMM tunnel junction that can be used to switch between pure spin-up and spin-down electronic currents by changing the external magnetic fields applied to the molecule
Summary
With the development of materials science, nanoscale molecular electronic devices have been extensively studied in recent years with regard to their potential applications in nanoscale devices and spintronics [1–3]. Due to their small size and low power consumption, many basic devices utilizing molecules have been demonstrated, including tunnel junctions with negative differential resistance [4], rectifiers [5], amplifiers [6] and data storage [7]. An SMM will be trapped in one of two metastable spin states | ± S [16] This bistability makes SMMs a suitable basis for memory cells [17, 18] and has motivated many efforts to investigate the other physical properties of SMMs. So far, the electron
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