Magnetic quantum coherence effect in Ni4 molecular transistors

Abstract

We present a theoretical study of electron transport in Ni4 molecular transistors in the presence of Zeeman spin splitting and magnetic quantum coherence (MQC). The Zeeman interaction is extended along the leads which produces gaps in the energy spectrum which allow electron transport with spin polarized along a certain direction. We show that the coherent states in resonance with the spin up or down states in the leads induces an effective coupling between localized spin states and continuum spin states in the single molecule magnet and leads, respectively. We investigate the conductance at zero temperature as a function of the applied bias and magnetic field by means of the Landauer formula, and show that the MQC is responsible for the appearence of resonances. Accordingly, we name them MQC resonances.