Large Magnetoresistance through a Single Molecule due to a Spin-Split Hybridized Orbital

Seiji Léo Kawahara (1) , Jérôme Lagoute (1) , Vincent Repain (1) , Cyril Chacon (1) , Yann Girard (1) , Sylvie Rousset (1) , Alexander Smogunov (2) , Cyrille Barreteau (2)

1 MPQ (UMR_7162) - Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques
2 GMT - Groupe Modélisation et Théorie

Using organic materials in spintronic devices raises a lot of expectation for future applications due to their flexibility, low cost, long spin lifetime, and easy functionalization. However, the interfacial hybridization and spin polarization between the organic layer and the ferromagnetic electrodes still has to be understood at the molecular scale. Coupling state-of-the-art spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy and spin-resolved ab initio calculations, we give the first experimental evidence of the spin splitting of a molecular orbital on a single non magnetic C-60 molecule in contact with a magnetic material, namely, the Cr(001) surface. This hybridized molecular state is responsible for an inversion of sign of the tunneling magnetoresistance depending on energy. This result opens the way to spin filtering through molecular orbitals.

Mots clés: Spin-polarized STM; fullerene; molecular orbital; density functional theory

Domaines: Physique [physics]

Seiji Léo Kawahara, Jérôme Lagoute, Vincent Repain, Cyril Chacon, Yann Girard, et al.. Large Magnetoresistance through a Single Molecule due to a Spin-Split Hybridized Orbital. Nano Letters, 2012, 12 (9), pp.4558-4563. ⟨10.1021/nl301802e⟩. ⟨hal-01987563⟩