Electron transport through a single chalcogenide Ni$_9$Te$_6$(PEt$_3$)$_8$ cluster

Recently nanoscale chalcogenide-based superatoms have been synthesized in the form of solids and also patterned at the surface of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides as dopants in the laboratory. The superatoms were also theoretically shown to transform from electron donor to acceptor by modifying the ligands. One such superatom consists of a Ni$_9$Te$_6$ cluster with a rock-salt structure surrounded by eight PEt$_3$ ligands which are connected to Ni atoms at the vertices. The superatom has cubic magnetic anisotropy with magnetic anisotropy barrier of 31.55 K in the neutral state. Here we investigate electron transport through an individual Ni$_9$Te$_6$(PEt$_3$)$_8$ cluster in a single-molecule transistor setup, by considering only two charge states within the sequential electron tunneling limit. We calculate current-voltage characteristics without and with an external magnetic field by using the giant spin model with parameter values obtained from density-functional theory and by solving the master equation.