Indication of Complete Spin Filtering in Atomic-Scale Nickel Oxide.

Generating highly spin-polarized currents at the nanoscale is essential for spin current manipulations and spintronic applications. We find indications for up to 100% spin-polarized currents across nickel oxide atomic junctions formed between two nickel electrodes. The degree of spin polarization is probed by analyzing the shot noise resulting from the discrete statistics of spin-polarized electron transport.

Probing the orbital origin of conductance oscillations in atomic chains.

We investigate periodical oscillations in the conductance of suspended Au and Pt atomic chains during elongation under mechanical stress. Analysis of conductance and shot noise measurements reveals that the oscillations are mainly related to variations in a specific conduction channel as the chain undergoes transitions between zigzag and linear atomic configurations. The calculated local electronic structure shows that the oscillations originate from varying degrees of hybridization between the atomic orbitals along the chain as a function of the zigzag angle.

Electron-vibration interaction in multichannel single-molecule junctions.

The effect of electron-vibration interaction in atomic-scale junctions with a single conduction channel was widely investigated both theoretically and experimentally. However, the more general case of junctions with several conduction channels has received very little attention. Here we study electron-vibration interaction in multichannel molecular junctions, formed by introduction of either benzene or carbon dioxide between platinum electrodes.

Atomically wired molecular junctions: connecting a single organic molecule by chains of metal atoms.

Using a break junction technique, we find a clear signature for the formation of conducting hybrid junctions composed of a single organic molecule (benzene, naphthalene, or anthracene) connected to chains of platinum atoms. The hybrid junctions exhibit metallic-like conductance (~0.1-1G0), which is rather insensitive to further elongation by additional atoms.