Magnetoelectric effect in organometallic vanadium–benzene wires

The magnetism of organometallic vanadium–benzene [V(C6H6)]∞ nanowires in an electric field has been investigated by density functional calculations. In the absence of an applied external electric field, [V(C6H6)]∞ is found to be ferromagnetic (quasi-half metallic), with a moment of 0.92 μB per unit cell, and an applied electric field enhances this value substantially, to 1.32 μB in a field of 1.8 eV/Å. The electric field also changes the preferential magnetization direction (easy-axis direction), from perpendicular to the wire to parallel to the wire. This transition occurs in an electric field of 1.0 eV/Å.