Fig. 1: Exchange-induced polarization in molecular spintronics.

a Intramolecular exchange scheme between the spin of a charge carrier in a localized conduction channel (gray) and a communicating single-molecule magnet (orange). b Implementation in DyP: the Dy(III) spin center (orange) is subject to an axial magnetic anisotropy and couples to an unpaired electron present on the porphyrin radical cation (gray). The intramolecular exchange coupling J splits the degeneracy of the conduction channel by the exchange energy, E_ex, even in zero magnetic fields (green box), application of B field lifts the residual degeneracy. c The peaks in the differential conductance vs. gate potential are spaced by the source-drain energy (gray) due to the conduction channel entering and exiting the source-drain window. The exchange induces a splitting of one peak into two spin-polarized channels (blue and green) that are separated by intramolecular exchange energy, E_ex, if the gate voltage, V_G, is scaled by the gate lever arm, β. The two channels remain perfectly spin-polarized in B = 0 for a slow-relaxing SMM.