Publications by authors named "N Binggeli"

Electrical control of magnetism has great potential for low-power spintronics applications and the newly discovered two-dimensional van der Waals magnetic materials are promising systems for this type of applications. In fact, it has been recently shown experimentally (Jiang et al., Nat.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

An ab initio density functional study was performed investigating the adsorption of CO on neutral boron B (n  =  10-13) clusters that are characterized by planar and quasiplanar ground-state atomic structures. For all four clusters, we found large chemisorption binding energies, reaching 1.6 eV between CO and B, with the adsorbed molecule oriented in the plane of the cluster and adsorbed along the cluster edge.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Band alignments in ferroelectric tunnel junctions (FTJs) are expected to play a critical role in determining the charge transport across the tunneling barrier. In general, however, the interface band discontinuities and their polarization dependence are not well known in these systems. Using a first-principles density-functional-theory approach, we explore the ferroelectric (FE) polarization dependence of the band alignments in [Formula: see text] (LSMO/PZT/Co) multiferroic tunnel junctions, for which recent experiments indicated an ON/OFF conductivity behavior upon switching the PZT FE polarization.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

We provide direct evidence that irradiation of a graphene membrane on Ir with low-energy Ar ions induces formation of solid noble-gas nanobubbles. Their size can be controlled by thermal treatment, reaching tens of nanometers laterally and height of 1.5 nm upon annealing at 1080 °C.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The spin-ordering and electronic properties of the c(2 × 2) MnCu/Cu(1 1 0) surface alloy are investigated by means of ab initio density-functional calculations. We first address the magnetic ground state and the robustness of the spin-polarization properties. The lowest-energy state is found to be ferromagnetic with a very low Curie temperature, showing that the paramagnetic phase should be established in this system at room temperature.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF