Perfect spin filtering by symmetry in molecular junctions

Abstract

Obtaining highly spin-polarized currents in molecular junctions is crucial and desirable for nanoscale spintronics devices. Motivated by our recent symmetry-based theoretical argument for complete blocking of one spin conductance channel in atomic-scale junctions [A. Smogunov and Y. J. Dappe, Nano Lett. 15, 3552 (2015)], we explore the generality of the proposed mechanism and the degree of achieved spin-polarized current for various ferromagnetic electrodes (Ni, Co, Fe) and two different molecules, quaterthiophene and p-quaterphenyl. A simple analysis of the spin-resolved local density of states of a free electrode allowed us to identify the Fe(110) as the most optimal electrode, providing perfect spin filtering and high conductance at the same time. These results are confirmed by $ab$ $initio$ quantum transport calculations and are similar to those reported previously for model junctions. It is found, moreover, that the distortion of the p-quaterphenyl molecule plays an important role, reducing significantly the overall conductance.