Effect of proportion on rectification in organic co-oligomer spin rectifiers

The rectification behaviours in organic magnetic/nonmagnetic co-oligomer spin rectifiers are investigated theoretically. It is found that both the charge current and the spin current through the device are rectified at the same time. By adjusting the proportion between the magnetic and nonmagnetic components, the threshold voltage and the rectification ratio of the rectifier are modulated. A large rectification ratio is obtained when the two components are equal in length. The intrinsic mechanism is analysed in terms of the asymmetric localization of molecular orbitals under biases. The effect of molecular length on the rectification is also discussed. These results will be helpful in the future design of organic spin diodes.

The effects of electric and magnetic fields on the current spin polarization and magnetoresistance in a ferromagnetic/organic semiconductor/ferromagnetic（FM/OSC/FM） system

From experimental results of spin polarized injection and transport in organic semiconductors（OSCs）,we theoretically study the current spin polarization and magnetoresistance under an electric and a magnetic field in a ferromagnetic/organic semiconductor/ferromagnetic（FM/OSC/FM） sandwich structure according to the spin drift-diffusion theory and Ohm＇s law.From the calculations,it is found that the interfacial current spin polarization is enhanced by several orders of magnitude through tuning the magnetic and electric fields by taking into account the specific characteristics of OSC.Furthermore,the effects of the electric and magnetic fields on the magnetoresistance are also discussed in the sandwich structure.

Tunneling magnetoresistance in ferromagnet/organic-ferromagnet/metal junctions

Spin-dependent transport in ferromagnet/organic-ferromagnet/metal junctions is investigated theoretically.The results reveal a large tunneling magnetoresistance up to 3230%by controlling the relative magnetization orientation between the ferromagnet and the central organic ferromagnet.The mechanism is explained by distinct efficient spin-resolved tunneling states in the ferromagnet between the parallel and antiparallel spin configurations.The key role of the organic ferromagnet in generating the large magnetoresistance is explored,where the spin selection effect is found to enlarge the difference of the tunneling states between the parallel and antiparallel configurations by comparing with the conventional organic spin valves.The effects of intrinsic interactions in the organic ferromagnet including electron–lattice interaction and spin coupling with radicals on the magnetoresistance are discussed.This work demonstrates a promising potential of organic ferromagnets in the design of high-performance organic spin valves.

Spin-excited states and rectification in an organic spin rectifier

Spin-excited states in an asymmetric magnetic organic co-oligomer diode are investigated theoretically. The results demonstrate that the structural asymmetry of the co-oligomer is modulated by the spin-excited states, which is embodied in the wave functions of the eigenstates as well as the spin density wave. By calculating the transport property, a robust spin-current rectification concomitant with a charge-current rectification is observed in all spin-excited states. However, the current through the diode is suppressed distinctly by the spin-excited states, while the rectification ratios may be reduced or enhanced depending on the bias and the excited spins. The intrinsic mechanism is analyzed from the spin-dependent trans- mission combined with the change of molecular eigenstates under bias. Finally, the temperature-induced spin excitation is simulated. Significant rectification behavior is obtained even at room temperature.

The effect of dimerization on the magnetoresistance in organic spin valves

The effect of lattice dimerization on the magnetoresistance （MR） in organic spin valves is investigated based on the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger （SSH） model and the Green＇s function method. By comparing with the results for a uniform chain, we find that the dimerization of the molecular chain modifies the monotonic dependence of the MR on the bias to an oscillatory one. A sign inversion of the MR is observed when the amplitude of the dimerization is adjusted. The results also show that at a low bias, the MR through a dimerized chain decreases with the increasing bias as well as the increasing chain length, which is consistent with the experimental reports. A further understanding can be achieved by analyzing the electronic states and the spin-dependent transmission spectrum with the parallel and antiparallel magnetization orientations of the two ferromagnetic electrodes.

Length dependence of rectification in organic co-oligomer spin rectifiers

The rectification ratio of organic magnetic co-oligomer diodes is investigated theoretically by changing the molecular length. The results reveal two distinct length dependences of the rectification ratio： for a short molecular diode, the chargecurrent rectification changes little with the increase of molecular length, while the spin-current rectification is weakened sharply by the length; for a long molecular diode, both the charge-current and spin-current rectification ratios increase quickly with the length. The two kinds of dependence switch at a specific length accompanied with an inversion of the rectifying direction. The molecular ortibals and spin-resolved transmission analysis indicate that the dominant mechanism of rectification suffers a change at this specific length, that is, from asymmetric shift of molecular eigenlevels to asymmetric spatial localization of wave functions upon the reversal of bias. This work demonstrates a feasible way to control the rectification in organic co-oligomer spin diodes by adjusting the molecular length.

Effect of interfacial coupling on rectification in organic spin rectifiers

The effect of interfacial coupling on rectification in an organic co-oligomer spin diode is investigated theoretically by considering spin-independent and spin-resolved couplings respectively. In the case of spin-independent coupling, an optimal interfacial coupling strength with a significant enhanced rectification ratio is found, whose value depends on the structural asymmetry of the molecule. In the case of spin-resolved coupling, we found that only the variation of the interfacial coupling with specific spin is effective to modulate the rectification, which is due to the spin-filtering property of the central asymmetric magnetic molecule. A transition of the spin-current rectification between parallel spin-current rectification and antiparallel spin-current rectification may be observed with the variation of the spin-resolved interfacial coupling. The interfacial effect on rectification is further analyzed from the spin-dependent transmission spectrum at different biases.

Effect of lattice distortion on spin admixture and quantum transport in organic devices with spin–orbit coupling

With an extended Su–Schrieffer–Heeger model and Green's function method, the spin–orbit coupling(SOC) effects on spin admixture of electronic states and quantum transport in organic devices are investigated. The role of lattice distortion induced by the strong electron–lattice interaction in organics is clarified in contrast with a uniform chain. The results demonstrate an enhanced SOC effect on the spin admixture of frontier eigenstates by the lattice distortion at a larger SOC,which is explained by the perturbation theory. The quantum transport under the SOC is calculated for both nonmagnetic and ferromagnetic electrodes. A more notable SOC effect on total transmission and current is observed for ferromagnetic electrodes, where spin filtering induced by spin-flipped transmission and suppression of magnetoresistance are obtained.Unlike the spin admixture, a stronger SOC effect on transmission exists for the uniform chain rather than the organic lattices with distortion. The reason is attributed to the modified spin-polarized conducting states in the electrodes by lattice configuration, and hence the spin-flip transmission, instead of the spin admixture of eigenstates. This work is helpful to understand the SOC effect in organic spin valves in the presence of lattice distortion.

Challenges and opportunities for spintronics based on spin orbit torque

Spintronic devices based on spin orbit torque(SoT)have become the most promising pathway to the nextgeneration of ultralow-power nonvolatile logic and memory applications.Typical SOT-based spintronic devices consist of two functional materials:a spin source and a magnetic material.Spin source materials possess a strong spin orbit coupling,enabling efficient interconversion between charge and spin current,Magnetic materials are used to process and archive the information via the interaction between the local magnetic moment and the spin current generated from spin source.Considerable efforts have been put into the design of materials and devices in the past decades to realize the electrical control of magnetic switching.However,a number of key challenges stll remain to be addressed for the practical application.In this paper,we reviewed the development of a range of novel materials for both the spin source and the magnetic functionalities,particularly the complex oxides and organic spintronic materials.We also discussed and highlighted several key issues,such as the mechanism and manipulation of SOT and the large-scale integration of sOT-based devices,which merit more attention in the future.