# Half-metallic silicon nanowires

## TL;DR

This paper predicts that doping silicon nanowires with transition metals can induce half-metallicity, making them promising for spintronic applications due to their spin-dependent electronic properties.

## Contribution

First-principles calculations reveal that TM-doped silicon nanowires can exhibit half-metallicity and tunable spin-polarized electronic properties for spintronics.

## Key findings

- TM-doped silicon nanowires are half-metallic at certain dopant coverages.
- High coverage leads to metallic behavior with high magnetic moments.
- Electronic properties can be engineered by dopant type and nanowire diameter.

## Abstract

From first-principles calculations, we predict that transition metal (TM) atom doped silicon nanowires have a half-metallic ground state. They are insulators for one spin-direction, but show metallic properties for the opposite spin direction. At high coverage of TM atoms, ferromagnetic silicon nanowires become metallic for both spin-directions with high magnetic moment and may have also significant spin-polarization at the Fermi level. The spin-dependent electronic properties can be engineered by changing the type of dopant TM atoms, as well as the diameter of the nanowire. Present results are not only of scientific interest, but can also initiate new research on spintronic applications of silicon nanowires.