Quantum Spin Transport Research Articles

Quantum interference and spin transport in M-OPE molecular devices controlled by N or B atom substitution

In this paper, the first-principles method based on density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green’s function is used to investigate the modulation of quantum interference and spin transport in N and B atom substituted meta-phenylene (M-OPE) molecular devices. The zero bias spin transmission spectrum of M-OPE molecular device shows that highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) are located at higher energy positions on both sides of the Fermi level, and there is a clear transmission spectrum valley (anti resonance peak) on the right side of the Fermi level. This indicates that M-OPE molecules are typical destructive quantum interference molecular systems. Research has found that N and B atoms replace carbon atoms at positions 1, 2, and 3 on the central ring of the molecule, which suppress the original destructive quantum interference of M-OPE molecular device to different extents. The substitution of N and B atoms at position 1 has no effect on the original destructive quantum interference of M-OPE molecular device, while the substitution of N and B atoms at positions 2 and 3 significantly suppresses the original destructive quantum interference of M-OPE molecular device. Therefore, there is a significant difference in the electrical conductivity of devices with N and B atoms at different positions, with the order of electrical conductivity values being N2 > N3 > N1 and B2 > B3 > B1. In this study, it is also found that the spin current value of device with B atom substitution is significantly higher than that of device with N atom substitution. After the substitution of B atom at position 2, the spin current value of the device under negative bias is significantly greater than that under positive bias, exhibiting a significant spin rectification effect. Based on the extended curled arrow rule proposed by O’Driscoll et al. to predict the behavior of quantum interference effects, we explain the physical mechanism by which N and B protons at different positions have different effects on the suppression of quantum interference in M-OPE molecular device. The results of the quantum interference and spin transport regulation of molecular systems by the substitution of B and N atoms can provide theoretical guidance for realizing the further application of heterocyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in molecular electronics.

Topological magnon bands, quantum correlation and spin conductivity in layered ferrimagnets

In this paper, we analyze the influence of topological magnon phases on quantum correlation and spin transport on layered ferrimagnets which is a fascinating topic in condensed matter physics. In the study of topological phases manipulated by an external magnetic field in layered ferrimagnets for the field applied along the easy axis, the system can transfer between a nodal-loop semimetal phase and a Weyl semimetal phase in perpendicularly and laterally magnetized geometries, respectively. The anisotropic nature of these materials means that the interactions between spins depend on their relative orientations in different directions. We analyze the effect of topological magnon bands induced by the coupling parameters on quantum correlation. The influence of these coupling parameters is also investigated on spin conductivity longitudinal and transversal as well.

Manipulation of quantum spin transport of TM (Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) (II) phthalocyanines coupled to carbon nanotube leads applicable in spintronic devices

We conducted a theoretical scrutiny on the quantum spin transport characteristics of a class of open-shell 3d-transition metal (TM = Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) (II) phthalocyanines (TMPcs) molecules sandwiched between two semi-infinite armchair single-walled carbon nanotube probes. Herein, the spin density functional formalism is utilized in conjunction with state-of-the-art non-equilibrium Green's function technique. Molecular junctions composed of MnPc and FePc have higher local magnetic spin moments than CoPc and NiPc because of the strong exchange spin-splitting between the 3d-states of the Mn or Fe cation atoms and the p-states of the N anion atom. This indicates that TMPc molecules (TM = Mn, and Fe) bridged between two single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) electrodes with a π-type geometry demonstrate a pronounced transmission near the Fermi level. Furthermore, the sign and robustness of spin filter efficiency are tailored by manipulating the central atom of 3d-transition metal and the contact SWCNT electrodes. Subsequently, FePc and MnPc molecular junctions have the advantage of operating practically as ideal spin filter devices compared to CoPc and NiPc molecular structures. Moreover, the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) of these molecular devices is assessed. For MnPc and FePc molecular junctions, the estimated total conductance exhibited a robust trend at zero bias voltage, whereas the magnitudes of spin-up and spin-dn quantum conductances increased significantly in CoPc and NiPc molecular configurations with bias voltages range between ±0.45 and ±0.95 Volt. Spin-down carriers essentially govern the quantum conductance of TMPc (Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni) molecular junctions at bias voltage around ±0.75 Volt. By examining their I-V characteristics, it has been established that MnPc, and FePc molecular junctions exhibit metal-like behavior, whereas CoPc and NiPc molecular devices are subject to negative differential resistance. As a result of our theoretical findings, it is found that TMPcs (TM = Fe, Mn) coupled to SWCNT probes yield a robust spin filter efficiency that may be of interest for prospective technological realizations in organic-inorganic molecular spintronic devices.

Photon-assisted spin transport in blue phosphorene nanotubes

We have investigated photon-assisted spin injection into blue phosphorene nanotubes (PNTs) with ferromagnetic cobalt electrodes by nonequilibrium Green’s function combined with light–matter interaction based on the first-order Born approximation. The results show the photo-induced spin current. The spin up and spin down photocurrents flow in opposite directions for zigzag blue nanotubes (ZPNTs) with anti-parallel magnetic configuration of the electrodes. By changing the structures of the blue phosphorene nanotube and the magnetization of the electrodes, multitudes of quantum spin transport properties are investigated, such as the nearly perfect photo-induced spin current and strong photo-polarization current signal. The results suggest that ZPNTs could serve as a potential material candidate for optical communication devices.

Scattering of spinon excitations by potentials in the one-dimensional Heisenberg model

By a semi-analytical Bethe ansatz method and a T-matrix approach we study the scattering of a spinon, the elementary quantum many-body topological excitation in the 1D Heisenberg model, by local and phonon potentials. In particular, we contrast the scattering of a spinon to that of a free spinless fermion in the XY model to highlight the effect of strong correlations. For the one spinon scattering in an odd-site chain, we find a regular behavior of the scattering coefficients. In contrast, in an even-site chain there is a transfer of transmission probability between the two spinon branches that grows exponentially with system size. We link the exponent of the exponential behavior to the dressed charge that characterizes the critical properties of the 1D Heisenberg model, an interplay of topological and critical properties. The aim of this study is a microscopic understanding of spinon scattering by impurities, barriers or phonons, modeled as prototype potentials, an input in the analysis of quantum spin transport experiments.

Spin transport in quantum d-dimensional XY model

The interplay between quantum phase transition and spin transport is analyzed in the spin-1 d-dimensional (d = 1, 2) XY chain bilayer and with a single ion anisotropy at T = 0. The model presents exchange interactions J1, J2 and J⊥. We have calculated the AC spin conductivity for this model and verified its behavior with the critical anisotropy Dc and parameter α = J2∕J1. The effect of the sudden change in the graphic Dc vs. α when Dc → 0 on spin conductivity is verified. Since our results show a sudden variation of spin conductivity in region where Dc → 0, we have gotten an influence of the quantum phase transition on the spin transport. We also calculate the quadrupole structure factor for the model that can be directly measured by polarized inelastic light scattering experiments.

Quantum spin transport to semiconductor quantum dots through superlattice

Spin transport properties from the GaAs/AlGaAs superlattice (SL) to InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) are studied by circularly polarized time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy of QD excited states with the selective excitation of SL miniband states. For the SL with a thinner barrier, we observe an effective carrier transport in SL owing to the stronger overlap of wavefunctions of adjacent quantum wells and a simultaneous highly efficient carrier injection into QDs. Moreover, the SL with a thinner barrier demonstrates a quantum spin transport to QDs maintaining high spin polarization during the transport process.

Time-resolved quantum spin transport through an Aharonov–Casher ring

After obtaining an exact analytical time-varying solution for the Aharonov–Casher conducting ring embedded in a textured static/dynamic electric field, we investigate the spin-resolved quantum transport in the structure. It is shown that the interference patterns are governed by not only the Aharonov–Casher geometry phase but also the instantaneous phase difference of spin precession through different traveling paths. This dynamic phase is determined by the strength of the applied electric field and can have substantial effects on the charge/spin conductances, especially in the weak field regime as the period of spin precession comparable to that of the orbital motion. Our studies suggest that a low-frequency normal electric field with moderate strength possesses more degrees of freedom for manipulating the spin interference of incident electrons.

Meissner mechanism for the spin supercurrent and interplay between quantum phase transition and spin transport in the frustrated Heisenberg model

We have propose the Meissner mechanism for the spin supercurrent in quantum spin systems. Besides, we study the behavior of the AC spin conductivity in neighborhood of quantum phase transition in a frustrated spin model such as the antiferromagnet in the union jack lattice with single ion anisotropy at T=0. We investigate the spin conductivity for this model that presents exchange interactions J1 and J2. Our results show a single peak for the conductivity with the height varying with the behavior of critical anisotropy Dc with J2. We obtain the conductivity tending to zero in the limit ω→0.

Quantum Spin Transport in Rashba Spin-Orbit-Coupled Graphene Nanoflakes**The authors are grateful to University of Kashan for supporting this work by Grant No. 463821/03

We study the spin-resolved transport in a two-terminal graphene nanoflake device with a Rashba spin-orbit coupling region in the center of the device. The Green’s function method is applied to the system and the spin transmission probability and the spin polarization in x, y, and z directions are calculated. It is found that the components of the spin polarization are antisymmetric functions of Fermi energy, which oscillate and decay to the zero with increasing the energy for all values of the Rashba strength. It is shown that by tuning the Rashba strength via a gate voltage and/or changing the size of the system, it is possible to control the sign and magnitude of the spin polarization. The system represented here is a typical candidate for full electrical spintronic devices based on the carbon materials that are used for spin filtration.

Quantum spin transport and dynamics through a ferromagnetic/normal metal junction

We study the spin transport in the low temperature regime (often referred to as the precession-dominated regime) between a ferromagnetic Fermi liquid (FFL) and a normal metal metallic Fermi liquid (NFL), also known as the F/N junction, which is considered as one of the most basic spintronic devices. In particular, we explore the propagation of spin waves and transport of magnetization through the interface of the F/N junction where nonequilibrium spin polarization is created on the normal metal side of the junction by electrical spin injection. We calculate the probable spin wave modes in the precession-dominated regime on both sides of the junction especially on the NFL side where the system is out of equilibrium. Proper boundary conditions at the interface are introduced to establish the transport of the spin properties through the F/N junction. A possible transmission conduction electron spin resonance (CESR) experiment is suggested on the F/N junction to see if the predicted spin wave modes could indeed propagate through the junction. Potential applications based on this novel spin transport feature of the F/N junction are proposed in the end.

Bond length and electric current oscillation of long linear carbon chains: Density functional theory, MpB model, and quantum spin transport studies

Carbon linear atomic chains attached to graphene have experimentally been produced. Motivated by these results, we study the nature of the carbon bonds in these nanowires and how it affects their electrical properties. In the present study we investigate chains with different numbers of atoms and we observe that nanowires with odd number of atoms present a distinct behavior than the ones with even numbers. Using graphene nanoribbons as leads, we identify differences in the quantum transport of the chains with the consequence that even and odd numbered chains have low and high electrical conduction, respectively. We also noted a dependence of current with the wire size. We study this unexpected behavior using a combination of first principles calculations and simple models based on chemical bond theory. From our studies, the electrons of carbon nanowires present a quasi-free electron behavior and this explains qualitatively the high electrical conduction and the bond lengths with unexpected values for the case of odd nanowires. Our study also allows the understanding of the electric conduction dependence with the number of atoms and their parity in the chain. In the case of odd number chains a proposed π-bond (MpB) model describes unsaturated carbons that introduce a mobile π-bond that changes dramatically the structure and transport properties of these wires. Our results indicate that the nature of bonds plays the main role in the oscillation of quantum electrical conduction for chains with even and odd number of atoms and also that nanowires bonded to graphene nanoribbons behave as a quasi-free electron system, suggesting that this behavior is general and it could also remain if the chains are bonded to other materials.

Families of Quasilocal Conservation Laws and Quantum Spin Transport

For fundamental integrable quantum chains with deformed symmetries we outline a general procedure for defining a continuous family of quasilocal operators whose time derivative is supported near the two boundary sites only. The program is implemented for a spin 1/2 XXZ chain, resulting in improved rigorous estimates for the high temperature spin Drude weight.

Lateral spin injection and detection through electrodeposited Fe/GaAs contacts

Efforts to achieve efficient injection of spin-polarized electrons into a semiconductor, a key prerequisite for developing electronics that exploit the electron's spin degree of freedom, have so far met with limited success. Here we report experimental studies of lateral spin injection and detection through electrodeposited Fe/GaAs tunnel contacts. We demonstrate spin injection efficiencies two orders of magnitude higher than for state-of-the-art contacts fabricated via ultra-high-vacuum methods, including those with MgO or Al2O3 tunnel barriers. To account for this enhancement, we propose that an iron oxide layer that forms at the Fe/GaAs interface during electrodeposition, being magnetic acts as a tunnel barrier with a spin-dependent height, presenting quantum spin transport calculations for such systems. This serendipitous discovery of greatly enhanced efficiency of spin injection into GaAs via electrodeposited contacts introduces a promising new direction for the development of practical semiconductor spintronic devices.

Self-consistent magnetization dynamics of a ferromagnetic quantum dot driven by a spin bias

We present an iterative scheme which combines the non-equilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) for evaluating the quantum spin transport in a ferromagnetic quantum dot device and the Landau-Lifshitz (LL) equation for modeling the magnetization dynamics of the dot. For a given initial magnetization, the spin polarization of current and the resulting spin torque in the dot are calculated using the NEGF formalism. The torque acts on the magnetic moment of the dot, and the resultant magnetization dynamics is obtained from the LL equation. The new value of the dot’s magnetization is then used as an input for the next round of NEGF calculation, and the whole process is repeated iteratively. The spin torque is thus calculated self-consistently with the dynamics of the magnetic moment of the dot. We apply this self-consistent iterative scheme to study the magnetization dynamics in an exemplary quantum dot system with an induced spin bias in the leads under varying damping conditions.

Two-Dimensional Intrinsic Ferromagnetism at Nitride-Boride Interfaces

We predict theoretically novel two-dimensional interface ferromagnetism at AlN/MgB(2)(0001) using first-principles calculations, where the interface is employed as an ordered structure of spin sites instead of point defects. Although N dangling bonds are apparently saturated, interfacial states exhibit spin polarization. Hund's coupling of the two N p(∥) orbitals as well as low density of states at the Fermi energy contribute to strong band ferromagnetism. Furthermore, first-principles electron transport calculations demonstrate that this interfacial spin polarization is responsible for quantum spin transport. The magnetization can be controlled by applied gate bias voltages.

Quantum Spin Transport in Carbon Chains

First-principles and non-equilibrium Green's function approaches are used to predict spin-polarized electronic transport in monatomic carbon chains covalently connected to graphene nanoribbons, as recently synthetized experimentally (Jin, C.; et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2009, 102, 205501-205504). Quantum electron conductances exhibit narrow resonant states resulting from the simultaneous presence of open conductance channels in the contact region and on the chain atoms. Odd-numbered chains, which acquire metallic or semiconducting character depending on the nature of the edge at the graphene contact, always display a net spin polarization. The combination of electrical and magnetic properties of chains and contacts results in nanodevices with intriguing spintronic properties such as the coexistence of magnetic and semiconducting behaviors.

Quantum spin transport in magnetic-field-engineered nano-structures

We theoretically investigated the resonant current that passes through a series coupled double quantum dots (QDs) subject to different Zeeman splittings under finite bias and strong Coulomb interaction conditions. When the Zeeman fields are different but collinear, there is always a single resonant peak. And when both Zeeman sub-levels of the QD near the source reservoir (probe QD) can be filled, we can expect the current to be strongly suppressed, which can be identified as a spin blockade. When the magnetic fields in each QD are non-collinear, we need to consider three parameters, the Zeeman energy in the probe (sample) dot, B Zp ( B Zs ) and the relative angle of these fields, θ . If the effect of the Coulomb interaction can be neglected, we can expect to observe four resonant peaks when B Zp ≠ B Zs since the spin eigenstate in one QD has a finite tunnel matrix element with both spin eigenstates in the other QD. However, the Coulomb correlation modifies the result significantly. When B Zp > B Zs , we always found a single resonant peak as a function of the energy offset. The peak current is maximum when θ = 0 and decreases monotonically for a larger θ < π / 2 . In contrast, when B Zp < B Zs , there were three peaks for θ < π / 4 and two peaks for θ > π / 4 .

Charge and spin transport in strongly correlated one-dimensional quantum systems driven far from equilibrium

We study the charge conductivity in one-dimensional prototype models of interacting particles, such as the Hubbard and the $t\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ spinless fermion models, when coupled to some external baths injecting and extracting particles at the boundaries. We show that, if these systems are driven far from equilibrium, a negative differential conductivity regime can arise. The above electronic models can be mapped into Heisenberg-like spin ladders coupled to two magnetic baths, so that charge transport mechanisms are explained in terms of quantum spin transport. The negative differential conductivity is due to oppositely polarized ferromagnetic domains that arise at the edges of the chain and therefore inhibit spin transport: we propose a qualitative understanding of the phenomenon by analyzing the localization of one-magnon excitations created at the borders of a ferromagnetic region. We also show that negative differential conductivity is stable against breaking of integrability. Numerical simulations of nonequilibrium time evolution have been performed by employing a Monte Carlo wave function approach and a matrix product operator formalism.

Effect of ferromagnetism on AB oscillations in a normal-metal ring

Quantum phase modulation is achieved in a metallic nanoring with a $\mathrm{FeNi}∕\mathrm{Cu}∕\mathrm{FeNi}$ (ferromagnet/normal-metal/ferromagnet) layer. Both frequency and amplitude of Aharonov-Bohm oscillation are found to be modified with respect to the magnetization configurations, indicating that the phase modulation originates from the spin-orbit scattering induced by the magnetization of the ferromagnets. Such phase modulation is ``crossover'' phenomena between mesoscopic magnetism and microscopic quantum interference effects, which provides fundamental knowledge upon quantum spin transport.