Manipulating Magnetism at Organic/Ferromagnetic Interfaces by Fullerene-Induced Surface Reconstruction

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that fullerene C60 adsorption induces magnetic surface reconstruction in Ni(111), significantly altering magnetic properties and enhancing spintronic functionalities at the organic/ferromagnetic interface.

Contribution

It reveals how fullerene-induced surface reconstruction modifies magnetic and electronic properties at the C60/Ni(111) interface, offering new insights for molecular spintronics.

Findings

Enhanced spin polarization and conductance at the interface

Localized spin-polarized states with spin-filter functionality

Reduced magnetocrystalline anisotropy and exchange coupling

Abstract

Fullerenes have several advantages as potential materials for organic spintronics. Through a theoretical first-principles study, we report that fullerene C$_{60}$ adsorption can induce a magnetic reconstruction in a Ni(111) surface and expose the merits of the reconstructed C$_{60}$/Ni(111) \emph{spinterface} for molecular spintronics applications. Surface reconstruction drastically modifies the magnetic properties at both sides of the C$_{60}$/Ni interface. Three outstanding properties of the reconstructed structure are revealed, which originate from reconstruction enhanced spin-split $\mathrm{\pi}$$-$d coupling between C$_{60}$ and Ni(111): 1) the C$_{60}$ spin polarization and conductance around the Fermi level are enhanced simultaneously, which can be important for read-head sensor miniaturization; 2) localized spin-polarized states appear in C$_{60}$ with a spin-filter functionality, and 3) magnetocrystalline anisotropic energy and exchange coupling in the outermost Ni layer are reduced enormously. Surface reconstruction can be realized simply by controlling the annealing temperature in experiments.