Shuttling of Spin Polarized Electrons in Molecular Transistors

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates how spin-polarized electrons can be shuttled in molecular transistors with magnetic leads, predicting a shuttle instability influenced by magnetic field strength and spin polarization levels.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model predicting spin-dependent shuttle instability in molecular transistors with magnetic leads, highlighting the role of external magnetic fields and spin polarization.

Findings

Shuttle instability occurs within a specific magnetic field range.

Critical magnetic field depends on the degree of spin polarization.

Detection of magnetic shuttling in C60 transistors is feasible.

Abstract

Shuttling of electrons in single-molecule transistors with magnetic leads in the presence of an external magnetic field is considered theoretically. For a current of partially spin-polarized electrons a shuttle instability is predicted to occur for a finite interval of external magnetic field strengths. The lower critical magnetic field is determined by the degree of spin polarization and it vanishes as the spin polarization approaches 100%. The feasibility of detecting magnetic shuttling in a $C_{60}$-based molecular transistor with magnetic (Ni) electrodes is discussed [A.~N.~Pasupathy et al., Science 306, 86 (2004)].