Electronic and magnetic properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes filled with iron atoms

Abstract

We study the electronic and magnetic properties of single-wall carbon nanotubes filled with Fe nanowires through local-spin-density-functional calculations. We find that the magnetic moments of Fe-filled carbon nanotubes for the ferromagnetic state are greatly enhanced due to the reduced coordination number of the Fe atoms on the nanowire surface, compared with bulk Fe. The increase of magnetic moments is more effective for thin nanowires, where the Fe atoms interact very weakly with the nanotube and thus their magnetic properties inside the tube are similar to those for the free-standing nanowires. For thick Fe nanowires, undercoordinated Fe atoms interact more strongly with the carbon nanotube, and thereby the magnetic moments are reduced. The analysis of the densities of states near the Fermi level shows that electron conduction mostly occurs along the Fe wires protected from oxidation by carbon coating. Our calculations suggest that for applications to spin transport devices, it is desirable to form thin Fe wires inside single-wall nanotubes with large diameters.