Electrically precise control of the spin polarization of electronic transport at the single-molecule level

Compared with the conventional magnetic means (such as ferromagnetic contacts), controlling a spin current by electrical methods could largely reduce the energy consumption and dimensions of nano-devices, which has become a focus of research in spintronics. Inspired by recent progress in the synthesis of an iron-based metal–organic nanostructure, we investigate the spin-dependent electronic transport of the molecule of Fe3–terpyridine-phenyl-phenyl-terpyridine–Fe3 (Fe3–TPPT–Fe3) through first-principles calculations, and propose a three-terminal device without ferromagnetics. By applying a gate voltage, not only the spin polarization can be switched between 100% and −100% to achieve a dual-spin filter, but also its fine regulation can be realized, where the transmission with any ratio of spin-up to spin-down electron numbers is achievable. Analysis shows that the particular transmission spectra are the key mechanism, where two peaks reside discretely on both sides of the Fermi level with opposite spins. Such a feature is found to be robust to the number of Fe atoms and TPPT chain length, suggesting that it is an intrinsic feature of such systems and very conducive to practical applications. The electrical control (such as an electric field) of spin polarization is realized at the single-molecule level, showing great application potential.