Fully spin-polarized transport induced by B doping in graphene nanoribbons

B-doping induced spin polarization in zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons is studied by density functional calculations by two kinds of doping: (1) doping only one B atom in the central scattering region; (2) periodically doping in the whole system. It is found that even a single B dopant may cause large spin polarization in the current, which can be understood by the breaking of spin-degeneracy due to the impurity atoms and the Fermi level shift resulting from the hole-donating of the B atoms. More interestingly, 100% spin polarized current under finite bias is obtained through periodical doping although the transmission function around the Fermi level is not 100% spin polarized. This can be interpreted by a rigid shift model of the special band structures of the left and right leads in this case. It demonstrates that only transmission function at equilibrium conditions is not sufficient in the study of electron transport, but current should be considered in certain situations.     

Photocurrent spin diode: Electrically controlled sign reversal of current polarization

We report a study of spin-dependent transport through a quantum dot irradiated by continuous circularly polarized light resonant to the electron-heavy hole transition. We use the nonequilibrium Green's function to calculate the spin accumulation, spin-resolved currents, and current polarization in the presence of an external bias and intradot Coulomb interaction. It is found that for a range of external biases sign reversal of the current polarization can be modulated. The system thus operates as a rectifier for spin current polarization. This effect follows from the interplay between the external irradiation and the Coulomb repulsion. The spin-polarized transport through a three-terminal device is also discussed. Spin current with high polarization could be obtained due to spin filter effect.     

Spin-dependent electron transport of a waveguide with Rashba spin--orbit coupling in an electromagnetic field

We investigate theoretically the spin-dependent electron transport in a straight waveguide with Rashba spin--orbit coupling (SOC) under the irradiation of a transversely polarized electromagnetic (EM) field. Spin-dependent electron conductance and spin polarization are calculated as functions of the emitting energy of electrons or the strength of the EM field by adopting the mode matching approach. It is shown that the spin polarization can be manipulated by external parameters when the strength of Rashba SOC is strong. Furthermore, a sharp step structure is found to exist in the total electron conductance. These results can be understood by the nontrivial Rashba subbands intermixing and the electron intersubband transition when a finite-range transversely polarized EM field irradiates a straight waveguide.     

Geometric symmetry modulated spin polarization of electron transport in graphene-like zigzag FeB<Subscript>2</Subscript> nanoribbons

Due to electron deficiency, the graphene-like honeycomb structure of boron is unstable. By introducing Fe atoms, it is reported that FeB₂ monolayer has excellent dynamic and thermal stabilities at room temperature. Based on first-principles calculations, the spin-dependent transport of zigzag FeB₂ nanoribbons (ZFeB₂NRs) under ferromagnetic state (FM) is investigated. It is found that, around the Fermi level, FeB-terminated (or FeFe-terminated) ZFeB₂NRs exhibit completely spin-polarized (or spin-unpolarized) transmission, and BB-terminated configurations exhibit completely unpolarized or partially polarized transmission. Further analysis shows that, the hinge dihedral angle has a switching effect on the transport channels, and the spin polarization of the transmission is determined by the symmetry of the distribution of hinge dihedral angles along the transverse direction of the ribbon, where symmetric/asymmetric distribution induces spin-unpolarized/polarized transmission. Moreover, such a symmetry effect is found to be robust to the width of the ribbon, showing great application potential. Our findings may throw light on the development of B-based spintronic devices.     

Bias-induced reconstruction of hybrid interface states in magnetic molecular junctions

Based on first-principles calculations, the bias-induced evolutions of hybrid interface states in π-conjugated tricene and in insulating octane magnetic molecular junctions are investigated. Obvious bias-induced splitting and energy shift of the spin-resolved hybrid interface states are observed in the two junctions. The recombination of the shifted hybrid interface states from different interfaces makes the spin polarization around the Fermi energy strongly bias-dependent. The transport calculations demonstrate that in the π -conjugated tricene junction, the bias-dependent hybrid interface states work efficiently for large current, current spin polarization, and distinct tunneling magnetoresistance. But in the insulating octane junction, the spin-dependent transport via the hybrid interface states is inhibited, which is only slightly disturbed by the bias. This work reveals the phenomenon of bias-induced reconstruction of hybrid interface states in molecular spinterface devices, and the underlying role of conjugated molecular orbitals in the transport ability of hybrid interface states.     

Magnetic field effects on excited states,charge transport,and electrical polarization in organic semiconductors in spin and orbital regimes

Magnetic field can influence photoluminescence, electroluminescence, photocurrent, injection current, and dielectric constant in organic materials, organic–inorganic hybrids, and nanoparticles at room temperature by re-distributing spin populations, generating emerging phenomena including magneto-photoluminescence, magneto-electroluminescence, magneto-photocurrent, magneto-electrical current, and magneto-dielectrics. These so-called intrinsic magnetic field effects (MFEs) can be observed in linear and non-linear regimes under one-photon and two-photon excitations in both low- and high-orbital materials. On the other hand, spin injection can be realized to influence spin-dependent excited states and electrical conduction via organic/ferromagnetic hybrid interface, leading to extrinsic MFEs. In last decades, MFEs have been serving as a unique experimental tool to reveal spin-dependent processes in excited states, electrical transport, and polarization in light-emitting diodes, solar cells, memories, field-effect transistors, and lasing devices. Very recently, they provide critical understanding on the operating mechanisms in advanced organic optoelectronic materials such as thermally activated delayed fluorescence light-emitting materials, non-fullerene photovoltaic bulk-heterojunctions, and organic–inorganic hybrid perovskites. While MFEs were initially realized by operating spin states in organic semiconducting materials with delocalized π electrons under negligible orbital momentum, recent studies indicate that MFEs can also be achieved under strong orbital momentum and Rashba effect in light emission, photovoltaics, and dielectric polarization. The transition of MFEs from the spin regime to the orbital regime creates new opportunities to versatilely control light-emitting, photovoltaic, lasing, and dielectric properties by using long-range Coulomb and short-range spin–spin interactions between orbitals. This article reviews recent progress on MFEs with the focus on elucidating fundamental mechanisms to control optical, electrical, optoelectronic, and polarization behaviors via spin-dependent excited states, electrical transport, and dielectric polarization. In this article both representative experimental results and mainstream theoretical models are presented to understand MFEs in the spin and orbital regimes for organic materials, nanoparticles, and organic–inorganic hybrids under linear and non-linear excitation regimes with emphasis on underlying spin-dependent processes.     

Spin-polarized electron emission from magnetic and non-magnetic solids

The use of spin-polarization analysis in electron spectroscopy of magnetic and non-magnetic surfaces is demonstrated with a few examples. The existence and properties of spin-dependent transmission of electrons through the solid-vacuum interface is shown. The influence of surface reconstruction of Pt(110) on spin polarization and energy distribution curves in photoemission with circularly polarized light is studied. The polarization of secondary electrons from Fe(110) is observed to depend on the spin polarization of primary electrons at low energies. The temperature dependence of the exchange splitting in Ni is studied by means of spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy and found to be at variance with the assumptions of the Stoner-Wohlfarth theory.     

Impurity-induced tuning of quantum-well States in spin-dependent resonant tunneling

We report exact model calculations of the spin-dependent tunneling in double magnetic tunnel junctions in the presence of impurities in the well. We show that the impurity can tune selectively the spin channels giving rise to a wide variety of interesting and novel transport phenomena. The tunneling magnetoresistance, the spin polarization, and the local current can be dramatically enhanced or suppressed by impurities. The underlying mechanism is the impurity-induced shift of the quantum well states (QWSs), which depends on the impurity potential, impurity position, and the symmetry of the QWS.     

Photoinduced anisotropic edge states and signatures of nonequilibrium spin polarization in silicene nanoribbons

Most topological phase transitions are accompanied by the emergence of surface/edge states with spin dependence. Usually, the quantized Hall conductivity cannot characterize the anisotropic transports and spin dependence of topological states. Here, we study the intricate topological phase transition and the anisotropic behavior of edge states in silicene nanoribbon submitted to an electric field or/and a light irradiation. It is interesting to find that a circularly polarized light can induce a type-II quantum anomaly Hall phase, which is manifested as the high Chern number and the strong anisotropic edge states. Besides the measurement of the quantized Hall conductivity, we further propose to probe these topological phase transitions and the anisotropy of edge states by measuring the current-induced nonequilibrium spin polarization. It is found that the spin polarization exhibits more signatures about the behavior of surface/edge states, beyond the quantized Hall conductivity, especially for spin-dependent transports with different velocities.     

基于Pancharatnam-Berry相位和动力学相位调控纵向光子自旋霍尔效应

提出了一种基于Pancharatnam-Berry相位和动力学相位操控纵向光子自旋霍尔效应的方法.理论分析表明:当光场通过一个由Pancharatnam-Berry相位透镜和动力学相位透镜构成的透镜组时,透镜组会存在两个自旋相关的焦点.首先,当左旋和右旋圆偏振光通过微结构相位延迟为π的Pancharatnam-Berry相位透镜时,由于Pancharatnam-Berry相位的自旋相关性,两个圆偏振分量会获得符号相反的Pancharatnam-Berry相位而导致其中一个被聚焦而另一个发散.然后,在Pancharatnam-Berry相位透镜后再插入普通透镜引入动力学相位调制,由于动力学相位是自旋无关,使得这一透镜组,可以在合适的条件下使不同自旋态的光子分别聚焦于纵向上不同焦点处.纵向自旋分裂由两透镜焦距及间距共同决定,因此可以通过改变两个透镜的焦距及其间距获得任意的纵向自旋分裂值.最后,搭建了一套实验装置,所得实验结果与理论结果一致.     

Spin-polarization and magnetoresistance in graphene-based resonant-tunnelling structures

Spin-dependent transport of relativistic electrons through graphene based double barrier (well) structures with ferromagnetic electrodes have been theoretically investigated. Electron transmission with different spin states is strongly influenced by the incident wave vector, the height (depth) of the barrier and the separation between them. When the angle of the incident electrons is varied from zero to ±π/2, spin polarization varies from zero to 100% with characteristic oscillations that indicate spin anisotropy. Due to Klein tunnelling, spin-polarization is always zero for normal incident electrons; high spin-polarization only occurs at large incident angles. Because the resonance features in the spin-dependent transmission result from resonant electron states in wells or hole states in barriers, the conductance can reach e²/h in this resonant-tunnelling structure.     

Optically mediated spin current and Fano resonance in an Aharonov-Bohm ring with a quantum dot

We study the spin-polarized transport and Fano resonance in an Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer with an embedded quantum dot, where the dot is irradiated by continuous circularly polarized light. Compared with the conventional Fano form, the resonance line shape is found to be deformed by the interplay between the external irradiation and the Coulomb repulsion. The Fano resonance peaks are split due to the shift of the effective energy level in the dot by Rabi oscillation of electron-heavy hole pairs. The direction and magnitude of spin current polarization can be modulated by the device parameters. Furthermore, the direct tunneling between two leads can induce a sharp sign reversal of spin polarization, the system thus operates as a rectifier for spin current polarization.     

Spin polarization of two-dimensional electron system in different Laughlin states and around filling factor

The spin configuration of the ground state of a two-dimensional electron system is investigated for different FQHE states from an analysis of circular polarization of time-resolved luminescence. The method clearly distinguishes between fully spin polarized, partially spin polarized and spin unpolarized FQHE ground states. We demonstrate that FQHE states which are spin unpolarized or partially polarized at low magnetic fields become fully spin polarized at high fields. Temperature dependence of the spin polarization reveals a nonmonotonic behavior at . At and the electron system is found to be fully spin polarized. This result does not indicate the existence of any skyrmionic excitations in high magnetic field limit. However, at the observed spin depolarization of electron system at and becomes broader for lower magnetic fields, so that full spin polarization remains only in a small vicinity of . Such a behavior could be considered as a precursor of skirmionic depolarization, which would dominate for smaller ratios between Zeeman and Coulomb energies.We demonstrate that the spin polarization of 2D-electron system at and can be strongly affected by hyperfine interaction between electrons and optically spin-oriented nuclears. This result is due to the fact that hyperfine interaction can both enhance and suppress effective Zeeman splitting in fixed external magnetic field.     

Multiple spin-resolved negative differential resistance and electrically controlled spin-polarization in transition metal-doped [6]cycloparaphenylenes

In structure, a [n]cycloparaphenylene ([n]CPP) molecule is constructed by fully conjugated bent benzenes, i.e., hexangular rings. Based on first-principles calculations, the spin-dependent electronic transport of transition metal-doped CPP, X@[6]cycloparaphenylene (X@[6]CPP) (X?=?Fe, Co and Ni), contacted with Au electrodes is investigated. (Multiple) negative differential resistance (NDR) is observed for all the doping cases, suggesting it is the intrinsic feature of such systems. Due to the spin dependence of the NDR, electrical switch of the direction of spin polarization for a current is realized. Further analysis shows that it is the suppression of the transmission peaks around the Fermi level as the bias increases that results in the NDR. The suppression is caused by the decay of the local density of states on the scattering region. As electrically controlled spin polarization is a promising area in nanoelectronics, we believe our results would be quite beneficial to the development of spintronic devices.     

基于石墨烯电极的Co-Salophene分子器件的自旋输运

采用基于非平衡格林函数结合第一性原理的密度泛函理论的计算方法,研究了基于锯齿型石墨纳米带电极的Co-Salophene分子器件的自旋极化输运性质.计算结果表明,当左右电极为平行自旋结构时,自旋向上的电流明显大于自旋向下的电流,自旋向下的电流在[-1V,1V]偏压下接近零,分子器件表现出优异的自旋过滤效应.与此同时,在自旋向上电流中发现负微分电阻效应.当左右电极为反平行自旋结构时,器件表现出双自旋过滤和双自旋分子整流效应.除此之外,整个分子器件还表现出较高的巨磁阻效应.通过分析器件的自旋极化透射谱、局域态密度、电极的能带结构和分子自洽投影哈密顿量,详细解释该分子器件表现出众多特性的内在机理.研究结果对设计多功能分子器件具有重要的借鉴意义.     

Anderson Localization Enhanced Spin Selective Transport of Electrons in DNA

Recent experiments revealed the unusual strong spin effects with high spin selective transmission of electrons in double-stranded DNA. We propose a new mechanism that the strong spin effects could be understood in terms of the combination of the ehiral structure, spin-orbit coupling, and especially spin-dependent Anderson localization. The presence of chiral structure and spin-orbit coupling of DNA induce weak Fermi energy splitting between two spin polarization states. The intrinsic Anderson localization in generic DNA molecules may result in remarkable enhancement of the spin selective transport. In particular, these two spin states with energy splitting have different localization lengths. Spin up/down channel may have shorter/longer localization length so that relatively less/more spin up/down electrons may tunnel through the system. In addition, the strong length dependence of spin selectivity observed in experiments can be naturally understood. Anderson localization enhanced spin selectivity effect may provide a deeper understanding of spin-selective processes in molecular spintronics and biological systems.     

Spin filtering effects in a one dimensional artificial lattice with ring geometry subject to Rashba coupling

Quantum interference effects in rings provide suitable means for controlling spin at mesoscopic scales. Here we apply such a control mechanism to the spin dependent transport in a one-dimensional Aharonov-Bohm (AB) ring patterned in two-dimensional electron gases (2DEGs) symmetrically coupled to two leads. We investigate the ballistic conductance in the presence of an artificial crystal, which is made up of 5 quantum dots. The study is essentially based on the natural spinorbit interactions, due to the quantum well potential that confines electrons in the 2DEG. We focus on single-channel transport and solve for the spin polarization of the current. As an important consequence of the presence of spin splitting, we find the occurrence of spin dependent current oscillations. The presence of lattice can be useful to improve the spin filtering capability of the QR. In fact modulating both the geometry of the dots and the strength of the tunnel barriers between them it is now possible to obtain well defined spin-dependent resonances allowing polarized transport. The presence of isolated conductance peak is useful in order to improve the efficiency of the spin filtering also at non zero temperatures.     

The electron transport characters in a nanostructure with the periodic magnetic-electric barriers

This paper detailedly studies the transmission probability, the spin polarization and the conductance of the ballistic electron in a nanostructure with the periodic magnetic-electric barriers. These observable quantities are found to be strongly dependent not only on the magnetic configuration, the incident electron energy and the incident wave vector, but also on the number of the periodic magnetic-electric barriers. The transmission coefficient and the spin polarization show a periodic pattern with the increase of the separation between two adjacent magnetic fields, and the resonance splitting increases as the number of periods increases. Surprisingly, it is found that a polarization can be achieved by spin-dependent resonant tunnelling in this structure, although the average magnetic field of the structure is zero.     

The electron transport characters in a nanostructure with the periodic magnetic-electric barriers

This paper detailedly studies the transmission probability, the spin polarization and the conductance of the ballistic electron in a nanostrueture with the periodic magnetic-electric barriers These observable quantities are found to be strongly dependent not only on the magnetic configuration, the incident electron energy and the incident wave vector, but also on the number of the periodic magnetic-electric barriers The transmission coefficient and the spin polarization show a periodic pattern with the increase of the separation between two adjacent magnetic fields, and the resonance splitting increases as the number of periods increases. Surprisingly, it is found that a polarization can be achieved by spin-dependent resonant tunnelling in this structure, although the average magnetic field of the structure is zero.     

Enhanced Spin Seebeck Efficiency in Closed Triple Quantum Dots Ring with Spin-Dependent Interdot Couplings

Spin Seebeck effect (SSE) in triple quantum dots coupled to ferromagnetic leads is studied by using the Keldysh nonequilibrium Green’s function technique. In low temperature regimes, the Fano effect arising from the interferences between the isolated states and the continuum plays an dominant role in the electronic and thermoelectric transport processes. The Seebeck coefficient depends on spin degree of freedom when the leads’ magnetic moments are in parallel configuration. When the leads’ polarization is varied, the charge Seebeck coefficients are less influenced, whereas those of the spin counterparts are obviously changed. The magnitudes of both the SSE coefficient and the spin figure of merit (FOM) will be enhanced by increasing the asymmetry of the leads’ spin polarization. In the presence of the spin-dependent interdot couplings, the strengths of the charge and spin thermoelectric quantities are individually suppressed and enhanced, and then the magnitudes of the SSE coefficient and the spin FOM are comparable to those of the charge counterparts. Interestingly, by the joint effects of the ferromagnetism on the leads and the spin-dependent interdot couplings, the spin thermopower can even changes its sign around the antiresonance states.