Excellent spin filtering and significant magnetoresistance of rhenium phthalocyanine molecular junctions on Au(100)

Abstract

Spin transport properties of single rhenium phthalocyanine (RePc) and double-rhenium phthalocyanine (Re2Pc2) molecular devices with gold electrodes have been investigated by combining Density Functional theory and nonequilibrium Green’s functions. It was found that the RePc molecular devices exhibited good spin filtration efficiency in the small bias range even in the absence of magnetic electrodes. The Re2Pc2 molecular device exhibited a large magnetoresistance and excellent spin-filtering properties at a finite bias, which can only be achieved by altering the magnetization orientation of the rhenium atom at the center of the phthalocyanine molecule. These conclusions of the rhenium phthalocyanine molecule may have potential application in magnetoresistive devices and spin filters.