Spin-dependent transport through Fe nanowires on Cu surfaces

Abstract We investigate the transport properties of Fe nanowires on Cu (1 1 1) within the density functional theory. We calculate the electron band structure along the axis of the nanowires. On the basis of the numerical results, we find that some surface bands have one-dimensional dispersion along the nanowires and that some of them exist in the surface projected band gap. These results hint at the possibility of observing spin-dependent quantized current on this system.