posted on 2020-11-09, 21:44authored bySha Yang, Shuang Li, Ji-Chang Ren, Christopher J. Butch, Wei Liu
Controlling
spintronic properties of ferromagnetic metal/organic
interfaces in a reversible manner provides novel avenues in spin memory
and logic operations. Until now, most previous work has been performed
by adsorbing magnetic organometallic complexes with bistable magnetic
states on metal surfaces. However, the strong coupling between the
molecule and metal surface usually destroys the switching ability
or even leads to dissociation of the adsorbates, obstructing efficient
control of spintronic properties at the interface. Here, we propose
a new design to realize the switchable magnetic properties based on
bistable chemisorbed and physisorbed states of nonmagnetic molecules
on ferromagnetic metal surfaces. The switching between the two states
leads to distinct local magnetic moments and yields actively controlled
spin polarization of the tunneling current. Based on this strategy,
we have predicted a series of switchable spinterfaces from halogenated
aromatic hydrocarbons on ferromagnetic metal surfaces, allowing highly
tunable interfacial spintronic properties.