Contact-induced spin polarization in BNNT(CNT)/TM (TM=Co, Ni)nanocomposites

Kuzubov, A. A.*; Kovaleva, E. A.*; Avramov, P. V.*; Kuklin, A. V.*; Mikhaleva, N. S.*; Tomilin, F. N.*; Sakai, Seiji; Entani, Shiro; Matsumoto, Yoshihiro*; Naramoto, Hiroshi*

The interaction between carbon and BN nanotubes (NT) and transition metal Co and Ni supports was studied using electronic structure calculations. Several configurations of interfaces were considered, and the most stable ones were used for electronic structure analysis. All NT/Co interfaces were found to be more energetically favorable than NT/Ni, and conductive carbon nanotubes demonstrates lightly stronger bonding than semiconducting ones. The presence of contact-induced spin polarization was established for all nanocomposites. It was found that the contact-induced polarization of BNNT leads to the appearance of local conductivity in the vicinity of the interface while the rest of the nanotube lattice remains to be insulating.