A valley-filtering switch based on strained graphene

We investigate valley-dependent transport through a graphene sheet modulated by both the substrate strain and the fringe field of two parallel ferromagnetic metal (FM) stripes. When the magnetizations of the two FM stripes are switched from the parallel to the antiparallel alignment, the total conductance, valley polarization and valley conductance excess change greatly over a wide range of Fermi energy, which results from the dependence of the valley-related transmission suppression on the polarity configuration of inhomogeneous magnetic fields. Thus the proposed structure exhibits the significant features of a valley-filtering switch and a magnetoresistance device.     

Electronic transport and quantum hall effect in bipolar graphene p-n-p junctions

We have developed a device fabrication process to pattern graphene into nanostructures of arbitrary shape and control their electronic properties using local electrostatic gates. Electronic transport measurements have been used to characterize locally gated bipolar graphene p-n-p junctions. We observe a series of fractional quantum Hall conductance plateaus at high magnetic fields as the local charge density is varied in the p and n regions. These fractional plateaus, originating from chiral edge states equilibration at the p-n interfaces, exhibit sensitivity to interedge backscattering which is found to be strong for some of the plateaus and much weaker for other plateaus. We use this effect to explore the role of backscattering and estimate disorder strength in our graphene devices.     

Transport properties and typical electron orbits in 2DEG under a local gradient magnetic field

Local current information in nanodevices is very helpful for good understanding the fundamental physical phenomena. In this work, the electron motion in 2DEG under a local gradient magnetic field is studied by the recursive non-equilibrium green's function method. The considered structure is a sandwiched configuration, lead-device-lead. For clearly observing the electron trajectories, we use the wide and narrow leads to contact the device respectively. The results show that in wide lead case, the quantized conductance plateaus with oscillations are found. These oscillations might be related to the resonant transmission in longitudinal electronic states. We also observe several typical snake electron orbits when the corresponding incident energy locates at the odd conductance plateaus, because there is exactly one opened transport channel around the horizontal middle line of device. When we shrink the width of leads and let electrons inject only from the lower half of device, the conductance suppression is very significant due to the energy level broadening in center device. In this case, we can find clear S-shape and 8-shape electron orbits at a very wide range of energy. These results can help us to understand the basic physics in 2D electron systems and may guide the design of future photoelectric device.     

Disorder-induced enhancement of transport through graphene p-n junctions

We investigate the electron transport through a graphene p-n junction under a perpendicular magnetic field. By using the Landauer-Büttiker formalism combined with the nonequilibrium Green function method, the conductance is studied for clean and disordered samples. For the clean p-n junction, the conductance is quite small. In the presence of disorders, it is strongly enhanced and exhibits a plateau structure at a suitable range of disorders. Our numerical results show that the lowest plateau can survive for a very broad range of disorder strength, but the existence of high plateaus depends on system parameters and sometimes cannot be formed at all. When the disorder is slightly outside of this disorder range, some conductance plateaus can still emerge with its value lower than the ideal value. These results are in excellent agreement with a recent experiment.     

Quantum modulation effect in a graphene-based magnetic tunnel junction

The electronic (quantum) transport in a NG/F_B/FG tunnel junction (where NG, F_B and FG are a normal graphene layer, a ferromagnetic barrier connected to a gate and a ferromagnetic graphene layer, respectively) is investigated. The motions of the electrons in the graphene layers are taken to be governed by the Dirac Equation. Parallel (P) and antiparallel alignment (AP) of the magnetizations in the barrier and in the ferromagnetic graphene are considered. Our work focuses on the oscillation of the electrical conductance (Gq), of the spin conductance (Gs) and of the tunneling magneto resistance (TMR) of this magnetic tunnel junction. We find that, the quantum modulation due to the effect of the exchange field in F_B will be seen in the plots the conductance and of the TMR as functions of the thickness of ferromagnetic barrier (L). The period of two multiplied sinusoidal terms of the modulation are seen to be controlled by varying the gate potential and the exchange field of the F_B layer. The phenomenon, a quantum beating, is built up with two oscillating spin conductance components which have different periods of oscillation related to the splitting of Dirac's energies in the F_B region. The amplitudes of oscillations of Gq, Gs and TMR are not seen to decrease as the thickness increases. The decaying behaviors seen in the conventional transport through an insulator do not appear.     

Electron transport through ac driven graphene p–n junctions

We study the electronic transport through ac driven graphene p–n junctions under a perpendicular magnetic field. It is found that subject to the transversely or longitudinally polarized ac field, in the p–n region, the conductance versus the on-site energy of the right electrode exhibits a characteristic structure with a zero value plateau and the followed oscillation peaks, whose widths are greatly suppressed by the ac field. In the n–n region, the conductance plateaus at $G=(n+1/2)(4e^2/h)$ (n is an integer) shrink for the transversely polarized ac field, whereas accompanied with the addition of the new quantized plateaus at $G=n(4e^2/h)$ for the longitudinally polarized ac field. The combined influence of the ac field with the disorder can trigger a change in the mixing of the hole and electron states at the p–n interface, which leads to a destruction of the plateaus structure in the conductance versus the disorder strength with the emergence of new ones. The influence of the elliptically and circularly polarized ac field on the conductance is also shown.     

Chirality effect in disordered graphene ribbon junctions

We investigate the influence of edge chirality on the electronic transport in clean or disordered graphene ribbon junctions. By using the tight-binding model and the Landauer-Büttiker formalism, the junction conductance is obtained. In the clean sample, the zero-magnetic-field junction conductance is strongly chirality-dependent in both unipolar and bipolar ribbons, whereas the high-magnetic-field conductance is either chirality-independent in the unipolar or chirality-dependent in the bipolar ribbon. Furthermore, we study the disordered sample in the presence of magnetic field and find that the junction conductance is always chirality-insensitive for both unipolar and bipolar ribbons with adequate disorders. In addition, the disorder-induced conductance plateaus can exist in all chiral bipolar ribbons provided the disorder strength is moderate. These results suggest that we can neglect the effect of edge chirality in fabricating electronic devices based on the magnetotransport in a disordered graphene ribbon.     

Thermospin phenomena in a quantum dot attached to ferromagnetic leads: Role of asymmetry and alignment

We study the thermospin effects in a system consisting of a quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads. It is shown that sign reversal and oscillation of spin Seebeck coefficient are indicated as a function of device parameters. When the magnetizations of the leads are formed in parallel alignment, the spin Seebeck coefficient and the spin-FOM have their maximum values for the symmetric dot-lead coupling case. However, in the antiparallel case, the optimal device parameters depend mainly on the strength of the magnetic field.     

Generation of an external magnetic field with the spin orientation effect in a single layer Ising nanographene

In this work, the magnetic properties of the single layer Ising nanogaphene (SLING) are investigated by using Kaneyoshi approach (KA) within the effective field theory for different spin orientations of its magnetic atoms. We find that the magnetizations of the SLING has no phase transition, certain Curie temperature and distinct peak of susceptibility at T_c for the some spin orientations at the zero external magnetic field (H=0.0). Because these behaviors occur at H≠0.0, we suggest that the SLING generates an external magnetic field and behaves as an external magnetic field generator for these spin orientations. However, the SLING exhibits ferromagnetic behaviors for only one spin orientations. But, it exhibits antiferromagnetic behaviors for the others. For the AFM cases, diamagnetic susceptibility behaviors and type II superconductivity hysteresis behaviors are obtained. We hope that these results can open a door to obtain new class of single layer graphene and graphene-based magnetic field generator devices with the spin orientation effect.     

Quantized four-terminal resistances in a ferromagnetic graphene p-n junction

The quantum Hall and longitudinal resistances in four-terminal ferromagnetic graphene p-n junctions under a perpendicular magnetic field are investigated. In the Hall measurement, the transverse contacts are assumed to be located at the p-n interface to avoid the mixing of edge states at the interface and the resulting quantized resistances are then topologically protected. According to the charge carrier type, the resistances in a four-terminal p-n junction can be naturally divided into nine different regimes. The symmetric Hall and longitudinal resistances are observed, with many new robust quantum plateaus revealed due to the competition between spin splitting and local potentials.     

Spin polarization and magnetoresistance through a ferromagnetic barrier in bilayer graphene

We study spin dependent transport through a magnetic bilayer graphene nanojunction configured as a two-dimensional normal/ferromagnetic/normal structure where the gate voltage is applied on the layers of ferromagnetic graphene. Based on the four-band Hamiltonian, conductance is calculated by using the Landauer-Buttiker formula at zero temperature. For a parallel configuration of the ferromagnetic layers of bilayer graphene, the energy band structure is metallic and spin polarization reaches its maximum value close to the resonant states, while for an antiparallel configuration the nanojunction behaves as a semiconductor and there is no spin filtering. As a result, a huge magnetoresistance is achievable by altering the configurations of ferromagnetic graphene around the band gap.     

Anisotropic spin relaxation in graphene

Spin relaxation in graphene is investigated in electrical graphene spin valve devices in the nonlocal geometry. Ferromagnetic electrodes with in-plane magnetizations inject spins parallel to the graphene layer. They are subject to Hanle spin precession under a magnetic field B applied perpendicular to the graphene layer. Fields above 1.5 T force the magnetization direction of the ferromagnetic contacts to align to the field, allowing injection of spins perpendicular to the graphene plane. A comparison of the spin signals at B=0 and B=2 T shows a 20% decrease in spin relaxation time for spins perpendicular to the graphene layer compared to spins parallel to the layer. We analyze the results in terms of the different strengths of the spin-orbit effective fields in the in-plane and out-of-plane directions and discuss the role of the Elliott-Yafet and Dyakonov-Perel mechanisms for spin relaxation.     

Induced moment antiferromagnet in an external magnetic field—I: Molecular field theory

The behavior of a two-level induced moment antiferromagnet in an external magnetic field is investigated in the molecular field approximation. A significant reduction in the critical field and in the sublattice magnetizations is shown. However, the total magnetization rises more rapidly with field and can remain at large value in an external field even at T = 0. The magnetic susceptibility also remains finite at T = 0 in contrast to the case of a permanent moment Ising antiferromagnet. The effects of a ferromagnetic next-nearest neighbor interaction are then examined. It is shown that, in contrast to the usual Ising antiferromagnets, the ferromagnetic coupling has to exceed a certain value depending on the crystal field strength and the antiferromagnetic interaction, to allow for a first order phase transition in a field to occur even at zero temperature.     

Electric tunable of electron spin polarization in hybrid magnetic-electric barrier structures

Electron spin-dependent transport properties have been theoretically investigated in two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) modulated by the magnetic field generated by a pair of anti-parallel magnetization ferromagnetic metal stripes and the electrostatic potential provided by a normal metal Schottky stripe. It is shown that the energy positions of the spin-polarization extremes and the width of relative spin conductance excess plateau could be significantly manipulated by the electrostatic potential strength and width, as well as its position relative to the FM stripes. These interesting features are believed useful for designing the electric voltage controlled spin filters.     

Spin polarization in parallel double dots with spin-orbit interaction

Spin polarization in parallel double quantum dots embedded in arms of Aharonov-Bohm interferometer is investigated. The spin-orbit interaction exists in quantum dots. We find that the spin polarization is quite large even with a weak spin-orbit interaction. The direction and the strength of the spin polarization are well controllable and manipulatable by simply varying the strength of spin-orbit interaction or the energy levels in quantum dots. Moreover, electron-electron interaction strengthens the spin accumulation when the energy levels of the two quantum dots are identical. As the energy levels are unequal, electron-electron interaction cannot increase the spin accumulation. It is worth mentioning that the device is free of a magnetic field or a ferromagnetic material and it can be easily realized with present technology.     

Fano resonance in electronic transport induced by the magnetic confinement in a graphene nanoribbon

Based on the Floquet scattering theory, a model of graphene-based electronic device is presented, in which electrical transport is controlled by adjusting Dirac fermions energy near resonance conditions. The presence of an oscillating field leads to the Fano resonance in transport through a magnetic structure in an armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR). The Fano resonance originates from bound states of the magnetic confinement, according to subband indices in the AGNR. The ballistic conductance is markedly affected by the Fano resonance due to the quasi-one-dimensional nature of AGNRs. The results may help realizing graphene electronics with the resonant characteristics in the conductance.     

Edge magnetization in Bernal-stacked trilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons

We have used a tight-binding Hamiltonian of an ABA-stacked trilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbon with β-alignment edges to study the edge magnetizations. Our model includes the effect of the intralayer next-nearest-neighbor hopping, the interlayer hopping responsible for the trigonal warping and the interaction between electrons, which is considered by a single band Hubbard model in the mean field approximation. Firstly, in the neutral system we analyzed the two magnetic states in which both edge magnetizations reach their maximum value; the first one is characterized by an intralayer ferromagnetic coupling between the magnetizations at opposite edges, whereas in the second state that coupling is antiferromagnetic. The band structure, the location of the edge-state bands and the local density of states resolved in spin are calculated in order to understand the origins of the edge magnetizations. We have also introduced an electron doping so that the number of electrons in the ribbon unit cell is higher than in neutral case. As a consequence, we have obtained magnetization steps and charge accumulation at the edges of the sample, which are caused by the edge-state flat bands.     

The effect of two ferromagnetic metal stripes on valley polarization of electrons in a graphene

As the key factor for designing the valleytronic devices is to well understand the valley-dependent transport mechanism in graphene, we investigate, in this work, the effect of two ferromagnetic (FM) metal stripes on the valley polarization in a graphene nanostructure with a strain. The nearly 100% valley polarization is observed at certain energy windows and it can be easily controlled through changing the width and the position of the FM stripe as well as the strength of the magnetic field induced by the FM stripe. Our interesting findings reveal the valley-dependent transport mechanism of electrons and promote the realization of the new types of valleytronic devices modulated by the FM stripe and the strain.     

Mode selective control of flow turbulence

We study spin transport in normal/ferromagnetic/normal/ferromagnetic.../normal graphene superlattices, which can be realized by putting a series of magnetic insulator bars on top of a graphene sheet. Owing to magnetic proximity effect, local exchange splittings will be induced in the graphene sheet, effectively forming a magnetic graphene superlattice. The spin polarization of tunneling conductance and the magneto resistance (MR) exhibit oscillatory behavior with the gate voltage. The superlattice structure leads to an enhanced spin polarization and MR ratio, making the magnetic graphene superlattice become very promising in spintronics applications.     

Magnetic field effects on total and partial conductance histograms in Cu and Ni nanowires

Conductance histograms have become a powerful tool for studying transport properties of metallic nanowires. However, the individual conductance curves display a very rich structure that might be concealed by the statistical procedure of finding preferred conductance values by building conductance occurrence histograms using consecutive nanocontact breakage experiments. This is particularly true when it comes to discerning 1/2G₀=e²/hquantization in magnetic nanowires. The effect of disorder, added to possible magnetic sources of scattering, and different magnetic states of different nanowires, might hide its appearance as histogram peaks. This work analyzes and compares Ni and Cu nanowire experimental histograms at room temperature (RT). Those obtained with no curve selection criteria are basically unaffected by the presence of a magnetic field. A selection of particular sets of conductance curves shows that conductance quantization could occur in steps of e²/h and 2e²/h in Ni as well as in Cu in the presence or absence of a magnetic field. Sorting out curves in sets that present conductance plateaus at half integer and integer values, and compiling statistics on the number of such curves that appear, depending on the applied magnetic field, results in differences between the behaviour of Cu and Ni. While for Cu, the magnetic field keeps the ratio of curves that present plateaus at 1/2G₀with respect those presenting G₀ plateaus unchanged; for Ni, the number of curves which exhibit plateaus at just G₀ almost disappears with the applied field. This experimental fact might indicate that the magnetic field removes spin degeneracy in these magnetic nanowires. PACS 72.25.Ba; 73.40.Jn; 73.63.Rt; 75.75.+a