Spin-polarized transport properties of GdN nanocontacts

Abstract

Gadolinium nitride (GdN) nanocontacts were recently experimentally shown to be efficient spin filters. Our study is aimed at identifying and analyzing the physical processes responsible for the high spin polarization of the tunneling current in GdN nanostructures. By the example of planar contacts and atomic chains attached to Cu electrodes we assert, using first principle techniques, that a 100% spin-filtering effect can be indeed achieved in GdN nanocontacts. Our analysis shows that the spin filtering is due to the predominant role of nitrogen majority $p$ states in the electron transport, while minority conductance decays exponentially with contact size due to the presence of a minority band gap at the Fermi level. Additionally, GdN zigzag infinite chains are found to be as efficient spin filters as their planar contact counterparts, also exhibiting a 100% spin-filtering effect, which is robust against chain geometry changes.