• 文献标题:   Electrical control of spin polarization of transmission in pure-carbon systems of helical graphene nanoribbons
  • 文献类型:   Article
  • 作  者:   LIU ZP, GUO YD, ZENG HL, LI JF, JIANG YY, YAN XH
  • 作者关键词:  
  • 出版物名称:   JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHYSICS
  • ISSN:   0021-8979 EI 1089-7550
  • 通讯作者地址:   Nanjing Univ Posts Telecommun
  • 被引频次:   0
  • DOI:   10.1063/5.0024186
  • 出版年:   2020

▎ 摘  要

Compared with conventional magnetic ways, modulating a spin-polarized current through electrical means could greatly reduce nano-devices' energy consumption and dimensions, which emerges as a new research area in spintronics. Inspired by the experimental progress on the synthesis of helically twisted graphene, we study the electronic transport of kekulene-like helical graphene nanoribbons through first-principles calculations. By applying a gate voltage, the system can be switched between spin-unpolarized and completely spin-polarized states, realizing an electrically controlled spin filter. Moreover, a fine modulation of the spin polarization can also be achieved, where transmission with any ratio of spin-up to spin-down electrons can be obtained, beyond the traditional spin filter. The analysis shows that it is the particular transmission spectra that play a key role, where two wide peaks with opposite spins reside partially overlapped around the Fermi level. They originate from the p orbitals of the zigzag edge part in the helical structure. Since the configuration only consists of carbon atoms, the electrical control of spin polarization is realized in a pure-carbon nano-system, showing great application potentials.