Spin transport in different oxide phases of copper

In this study, spin transport was directly compared in two types of copper oxides: The first is antiferromagnetic CuO, in which Cu2+ has one unpaired spin in the 3 d orbital; the second is diamagnetic Cu2 O with a Cu+ ion having a fully filled 3 d orbital. The results indicate that CuO exhibits good spin conductivity, whereas Cu2 O is a spin insulator. This indicates that possessing unpaired spins may be an important characteristic of good spin conductors and that copper oxides may have the potential to be spin manipulators.