Researchers from the physics department of the Università “La Sapienza” in Rome, Centro S3 of Modena and ALBA, have demonstrated that magnetic coupling of metal-organic molecules to a magnetic substrate mediated by a graphene layer can be tuned in strength and direction by choosing the symmetry of the molecular orbitals that is largely preserved thanks to the graphene layer. The results have been published in the journal Nano Letters.
Paramagnetic molecules become potential building blocks in spintronics when their magnetic moments are stabilized against thermal fluctuations, for example, by a controlled interaction with a magnetic substrate. Spin molecular interfaces with preserved magnetic activity and exhibiting magnetic remanence at room temperature (RT) can open the route to engineer highly spin-polarized, nanoscale current sources. The need to fully control the organic spin interface and the tuning of ferromagnetic (FM) or antiferromagnetic (AFM) coupling to achieve a stable conductance has motivated a vast experimental interest.
Image: Figure 1: a,b) Antiferromagnetic/Ferromagnetic coupling as deduced by element-specific hysteresis loops of a FePc and CuPc (respectively) to a Cobalt layer with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy intercalated below graphene. c,d) orbital-porjection of the spin-density for the FePc and CoPc interface reflecting the different symmetry of the molecular orbitals involved in the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interaction.