Electrical currents at the surface or edge of a topological insulator are intrinsically spin-polarized. We show that such surface/edge currents can be used to switch the orientation of a molecular magnet weakly coupled to the surface or edge of a topological insulator. For the edge of a two-dimensional topological insulator as well as for the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator the application of a well-chosen surface/edge current can lead to a complete polarization of the molecule if the molecule's magnetic anisotropy axis is appropriately aligned with the current direction. For a generic orientation of the molecule a nonzero but incomplete polarization is obtained. We calculate the probability distribution of the magnetic states and the switching rates as a function of the applied current.
@article{arxiv.1612.02711,
title = {Current-induced switching of magnetic molecules on topological insulator surfaces},
author = {Elina Locane and Piet W. Brouwer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.02711},
year = {2017}
}