Spin-valve giant magnetoresistance in scandium-benzene sandwich cluster

¹ Key Laboratory of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System, Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology - Taiyuan 030024, China
² College of Physics and Optoelectronics, Taiyuan University of Technology - Taiyuan 030024, China
³ Key Laboratory of Interface Science and Engineering in Advanced Materials, Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology - Taiyuan 030024, China
⁴ College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology - Taiyuan 030024, China
⁵ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures and Department of Physics, Nanjing University Nanjing 210093, China

^(a) yangzhi@tyut.edu.cn
^(b) liuxuguang@tyut.edu.cn

Received: 23 June 2013
Accepted: 9 December 2013

Abstract

Using density functional theory and non-equilibrium Green's function method, we investigate the magnetic and transport properties of organic Sc_n(C₆H₆)_n+1 () sandwich clusters. The results show that the sandwiches possess high stabilities and large magnetic moments, and our prediction is in agreement with the experimental observation. With Ni as two electrodes, significant spin-valve giant magnetoresistance was found in Sc₃(C₆H₆)₄ molecular junction. Furthermore, all the sandwiches can be viewed as a new kind of spin filter. Specially, by changing the magnetization orientation of one electrode, Sc₂(C₆H₆)₃ molecular junction could effectively control the spin orientation of the electron in the system.