Spin transport in dangling-bond wires on doped H-passivated Si(100)

TL;DR

This paper investigates how doping affects spin transport in dangling-bond atomic wires on hydrogen-passivated silicon surfaces, revealing dopants enhance transport and enable spin filtering, crucial for atomic-scale spintronics.

Contribution

It demonstrates that dopants like boron and phosphorus significantly modify the electronic and spin transport properties of atomic wires created by hydrogen removal on silicon surfaces.

Findings

Dopants tend to approach dangling-bond wires.

Dopants enhance electron transport in the wires.

Boron acts as an effective spin filter in the wires.

Abstract

New advances in single-atom manipulation are leading to the creation of atomic structures on H passivated Si surfaces with functionalities important for the development of atomic and molecular based technologies. We perform total-energy and electron-transport calculations to reveal the properties and understand the features of atomic wires crafted by H removal from the surface. The presence of dopants radically change the wire properties. Our calculations show that dopants have a tendency to approach the dangling-bond wires, and in these conditions, transport is enhanced and spin selective. These results have important implications in the development of atomic-scale spintronics showing that boron, and to a lesser extent phosphorous, convert the wires in high-quality spin filters.