Spin-polarized transport in a normal/ferromagnetic/normal zigzag graphene nanoribbon junction

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/21/1/017203

Abstract We investigate the spin-dependent electron transport in single and double normal/ferromagnetic/normal zigzag graphene nanoribbon (NG/FG/NG) junctions. The ferromagnetism in the FG region originates from the spontaneous magnetization of the zigzag graphene nanoribbon. It is shown that when the zigzag-chain number of the ribbon is even and only a single transverse mode is actived, the single NG/FG/NG junction can act as a spin polarizer and/or a spin analyzer because of the valley selection rule and the spin-exchange field in the FG, while the double NG/FG/NG/FG/NG junction exhibits a quantum switching effect, in which the on and the off states switch rapidly by varying the cross angle between two FG magnetizations. Our findings may shed light on the application of magnetized graphene nanoribbons to spintronics devices.

Keywords: spontaneous magnetization zigzag graphene nanoribbon spin polarizer quantum switching effect

Received: 17 May 2011
Revised: 01 September 2011
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	72.10.-d	(Theory of electronic transport; scattering mechanisms)
	74.45.+c	(Proximity effects; Andreev reflection; SN and SNS junctions)
	73.23.-b	(Electronic transport in mesoscopic systems)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 110704032 and 110704033), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK2010416), and the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2009CB

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Tian Hong-Yu(田宏玉) and Wang Jun(汪军) Spin-polarized transport in a normal/ferromagnetic/normal zigzag graphene nanoribbon junction 2012 Chin. Phys. B 21 017203

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Spin-polarized transport in a normal/ferromagnetic/normal zigzag graphene nanoribbon junction

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