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Title: Spin-crossover molecule based thermoelectric junction

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921165· OSTI ID:22399056
 [1];  [2];  [3]
  1. Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore 560064 (India)
  2. Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Regensburg, D-93040 Regensburg (Germany)
  3. Theoretical Sciences Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore 560064 (India)

Using ab-initio numerical methods, we explore the spin-dependent transport and thermoelectric properties of a spin-crossover molecule (i.e., iron complex of 2-(1H-pyrazol-1-yl)-6-(1H-tetrazole-5-yl)pyridine) based nano-junction. We demonstrate a large magnetoresistance, efficient conductance-switching, and spin-filter activity in this molecule-based two-terminal device. The spin-crossover process also modulates the thermoelectric entities. It can efficiently switch the magnitude as well as spin-polarization of the thermocurrent. We find that thermocurrent is changed by ∼4 orders of magnitude upon spin-crossover. Moreover, it also substantially affects the thermopower and consequently, the device shows extremely efficient spin-crossover magnetothermopower generation. Furthermore, by tuning the chemical potential of electrodes into a certain range, a pure spin-thermopower can be achieved for the high-spin state. Finally, the reasonably large values of figure-of-merit in the presence and absence of phonon demonstrate a large heat-to-voltage conversion efficiency of the device. We believe that our study will pave an alternative way of tuning the transport and thermoelectric properties through the spin-crossover process and can have potential applications in generation of spin-dependent current, information storage, and processing.

OSTI ID:
22399056
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 106, Issue 19; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English