Shuttling of spin polarized electrons in molecular transistors

Shuttling of electrons in single-molecule transistors with magnetic leads in the presence of an external magnetic field is considered theoretically. For a current of partially spin-polarized electrons a shuttle instability is predicted to occur for a finite interval of external magnetic field strengths. The lower critical magnetic field is determined by the degree of spin polarization and it vanishes as the spin polarization approaches 100%. The feasibility of detecting magnetic shuttling in a C60-based molecular transistor with magnetic (Ni) electrodes is discussed (Pasupathy et al. (2004) [7]).