Electronic structure and transport properties of atomic NiO spinvalves

Jacob, David; Fernández-Rossier, J.; Palacios, J. J.

Electronic structure and transport properties of atomic NiO spinvalves

Authors

Jacob, David

Fernández-Rossier, J.

Palacios, J. J.

Description

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.
2 pages, 1 figure; accepted in JMMM (Proceedings of ICM'06, Kyoto)