Single molecule magnetoresistance with combined antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic electrodes

Nano Letters

Volumn 12, Issue 10, 2012, Pages 5131-5136

  Bagrets, Alexei ^a   Schmaus, Stefan ^b,e   Jaafar, Ali ^c   Kramczynski, Detlef ^b   Yamada, Toyo Kazu ^b,d   Alouani, Mébarek ^c   Wulfhekel, Wulf ^b   Evers, Ferdinand ^a,b  

^a KARLSRUHE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (Germany)

^b KARLSRUHE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (Germany)

^c INSTITUT DE PHYSIQUE ET CHIMIE DES MATÉRIAUX DE STRASBOURG   (France)

^d CHIBA UNIVERSITY   (Japan)

^e MAX PLANCK INSTITUT FÜR FESTKÖRPERFORSCHUNG   (Germany)

Author keywords

antiferromagnetic Mn films; giant magnetoresistance; molecular electronics; nanomagnetism; phtalocyanine; Spintronics

Indexed keywords

ANTIFERROMAGNETICS; ELECTRON TRANSPORT; FERROMAGNETIC ELECTRODES; LOW-TEMPERATURE SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY; LOWEST UNOCCUPIED MOLECULAR ORBITAL; NANOMAGNETISMS; NEGATIVE MAGNETO-RESISTANCE; PHTALOCYANINE; RESONANT TRANSMISSIONS; SINGLE MOLECULE; TRANSPORT CALCULATION;

DENSITY FUNCTIONAL THEORY; FERROMAGNETIC MATERIALS; FERROMAGNETISM; GIANT MAGNETORESISTANCE; HYDROGEN; MAGNETOELECTRONICS; MANGANESE; MOLECULAR ELECTRONICS; MOLECULES; SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY;

ANTIFERROMAGNETISM;

EID: 84867473136     PISSN: 15306984     EISSN: 15306992     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1021/nl301967t     Document Type: Article

References (26)

1. Baibich, M. N.; Broto, J. M.; Fert, A.; Van Dau, F. N.; Petroff, F.; Etienne, P.; Creuzet, G.; Friederich, A.; Chazelas, J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1988, 61, 2472-2475
2. Binasch, G.; Grünberg, P.; Saurenbach, F.; Zinn, W. Phys. Rev. B 1989, 39, 4828-4830
3. Schmaus, S.; Bagrets, A.; Nahas, Y.; Yamada, T. K.; Bork, A.; Bowen, M.; Beaurepaire, E.; Evers, F.; Wulfhekel, W. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2011, 6, 185-189
4. Iacovita, C.; Rastei, M. V.; Heinrich, B. W.; Brumme, T.; Kortus, J.; Limot, L.; Bucher, J. P. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2008, 101, 116602
5. Atodiresei, N.; Brede, J.; Lazić, P.; Caciuc, V.; Hoffmann, G.; Wiesendanger, R.; Blügel, S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2010, 105, 066601
6. Brede, J.; Atodiresei, N.; Kuck, S.; Lazić, P.; Caciuc, V.; Morikawa, Y.; Hoffmann, G.; Blügel, S.; Wiesendanger, R. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2010, 105, 047204
7. Bowen, M. J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 2007, 19, 315208
8. Greullet, F.; Tiusan, C.; Montaigne, F.; Hehn, M.; Halley, D.; Bengone, O.; Bowen, M.; Weber, W. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2007, 99, 187202
9. Santos, T. S.; Lee, J. S.; Migdal, P.; Lekshmi, I. C.; Satpati, B.; Moodera, J. S. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2007, 98, 016601
10. Barraud, C.; Seneor, P.; Mattana, R.; Fusil, S.; Bouzehouane, K.; Deranlot, C.; Graziosi, P.; Hueso, L.; Bergenti, I.; Dediu, V.; Petroff, F.; Fert, A. Nat. Phys. 2010, 6, 615-620
11. Javaid, S.; Bowen, M.; Boukari, S.; Joly, L.; Beaufrand, J.-B.; Chen, X.; Dappe, Y. J.; Scheurer, F.; Kappler, J.-P.; Arabski, J.; Wulfhekel, W.; Alouani, M.; Beaurepaire, E. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2010, 105, 077201
12. Wulfhekel, W.; Schlickum, U.; Kirschner, J. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2005, 66, 106-116
13. Bruus, H.; Flensberg, K. Many-body quantum theory in condensed matter physics: an introduction; Oxford University Press: New York, 2004.
14. AP are conductances across molecular junctions with electrodes being magnetized either parallel (P) or antiparallel (AP) to each other.
15. Grimme, S. J. Comput. Chem. 2006, 27, 1787-1799
16. It is interesting to mention that binding geometries are not very sensitive to whether the LSDA or the GGA+vdW have been used. This seems surprising, however, it is well-known that LSDA has a tendency to overestimate and GGA to underestimate the binding energies. For example, LDA reproduces the distance between graphite layers(17) whereas GGA gives correct results only when the vdW interactions are included.(18) A similar situation was also found for the adsorption of CoPc on Co(111) surface.(19)
17. Spanu, L.; Sorella, S.; Galli, G. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2009, 103, 196401
18. Rydberg, H.; Dion, M.; Jacobson, N.; Schröder, E.; Hyldgaard, P.; Simak, S. I.; Langreth, D. C.; Lundqvist, B. I. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2003, 91, 126402
19. Chen, X.; Alouani, M. Phys. Rev. B 2010, 82, 094443
20. Probably, none of the model geometries displayed in Figure 1 is particularly close to the experimental situation, for example, due to the presence of strain. Still, important insights will be gained about the molecular conductance since qualitative features, like contact sensitivity, and also quantitative information, like the spread in magnetoresistance values, will be properly reproduced by our modeling.
21. We emphasize that the alignment of molecular levels with the Fermi energy of the metal electrodes suffers from approximations in the exchange-correlation functionals that one employs in DFT calculations.(23) Usually, DFT properly reproduces trends but not necessarily the precise resonance position. Therefore, quantitative deviations of the position of the true LUMO resonance from the values that one reads off Figures 1 and 2 are to be expected. However, as has already been pointed out in ref 3 the GMR is a ratio of two conductances and therefore a tendency for error cancellation exists. Hence, we believe that our estimates for the GMR could be quantitatively more robust against functional artifacts than the transmission function itself.
22. Takács, A. F.; Witt, F.; Schmaus, S.; Balashov, T.; Bowen, M.; Beaurepaire, E.; Wulfhekel, W. Phys. Rev. B 2008, 78, 233404
23. Evers, F.; Burke, K. Pride, prejudice, and penury of ab initio transport calculations for single molecules. In Nano and Molecular Electronics Handbook; Lyshevski, S. E., Ed.; CRC Press: Boca Raton, FL, 2007.
24. Yamada, T. K.; Bischoff, M. M. J.; Heijnen, G. M. M.; Mizoguchi, T.; van Kempen, H. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2003, 90, 056803
25. Schlickum, U.; Janke-Gilman, N.; Wulfhekel, W.; Kirschner, J. Phys. Rev. Lett. 2004, 92, 107203
26. Schull, G.; Frederiksen, T.; Arnau, A.; Sanchez-Portal, D.; Berndt, R. Nat. Nanotechnol. 2011, 6, 23-27