Abstract:
In our pursuit of ever smaller transistors, with greater computational throughput, many
questions arise about how material properties change with size, and how these properties
may be modelled more accurately. Metallic nanocontacts, especially those for which
magnetic properties are important, are of great interest due to their potential spintronic
applications. Yet, serious challenges remain from the standpoint of theoretical and
computational modelling, particularly with respect to the coupling of the spin and lattice
degrees of freedom in ferromagnetic nanocontacts in emerging spintronic technologies. In
this thesis, an extended method is developed, and applied for the first time, to model the
interplay between magnetism and atomic structure in transition metal nanocontacts. The
dynamic evolution of the model contacts emulates the experimental approaches used in
scanning tunnelling microscopy and mechanically controllable break junctions, and is
realised in this work by classical molecular dynamics and, for the first time, spin-lattice
dynamics. The electronic structure of the model contacts is calculated via plane-wave and
local-atomic orbital density functional theory, at the scalar- and vector-relativistic level of
sophistication. The effects of scalar-relativistic and/or spin-orbit coupling on a number of
emergent properties exhibited by transition metal nanocontacts, in experimental
measurements of conductance, are elucidated by non-equilibrium Green’s Function
quantum transport calculations. The impact of relativistic effects during contact formation
in non-magnetic gold is quantified, and it is found that scalar-relativistic effects enhance the force of attraction between gold atoms much more than between between atoms which
do not have significant relativistic effects, such as silver atoms. The role of non-collinear
magnetism in the electronic transport of iron and nickel nanocontacts is clarified, and it is
found that the most-likely conductance values reported for these metals, at first- and lastcontact,
are determined by geometrical factors, such as the degree of covalent bonding in
iron, and the preference of a certain crystallographic orientation in nickel.
