Electronic structure and transport properties of atomic NiO spinvalves

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that atomic NiO chains in Ni nanocontacts exhibit strong spin-polarized conductance, suggesting their potential as nanoscale spinvalves, with consistent results across different computational methods.

Contribution

The paper shows that NiO chains can serve as effective nanoscopic spinvalves, confirmed by ab-initio calculations using different exchange-correlation approximations.

Findings

Strong spin-polarization of conductance in NiO chains

Robustness of polarization across different computational methods

Proposal of NiO chains as nanoscopic spinvalves

Abstract

Ab-initio quantum transport calculations show that short NiO chains suspended in Ni nanocontacts present a very strong spin-polarization of the conductance. The generalized gradient approximation we use here predicts a similiar polarization of the conductance as the one previously computed with non-local exchange, confirming the robustness of the result. Their use as nanoscopic spinvalves is proposed.