Controllable spin transport in dual-gated silicene

Based on the dual-gated silicene, we have evaluated theoretically the spin-dependent transport in lateral resonant tunneling structure. By aligning the completely valley-polarized beam with spin-resolved well state in concerned structure, large spin polarization can be expected owing to spin-dependent resonant tunneling mechanism. Under the gate electric field modulation, the forming quantum well state can be externally manipulated, triggering further the emergence of externally-controllable spin polarization. Importantly, integrating the considered structure with a proper valley-filter, which might be constructed from valley-contrasting physics as that in graphene valleytronics, completely-polarized spin beam can also be attained without the assistance of ferromagnetic component, providing thus some profitable strategies to develop nonmagnetic spintronic devices residing on silicene.     

Spin-polarized transport in multiterminal silicene nanodevices

The spin-polarized transport properties of multiterminal silicene nanodevices are studied using the tight binding model and Landauer–Buttier approach. We propose a four-terminal 2-shaped junction device and two types of three-terminal T-shaped junction devices, which are made of the crossing of a zigzag and an armchair silicene nanoribbon. If the electrons are injected into the metallic lead, the near-perfect spin polarization with 100% around the Fermi energy can be achieved easily at the other semiconducting leads. Thus the multiterminal silicene nanodevices can act as controllable spin filters.     

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.     

Material dependence of spin transport modulated by magnetic barriers in semiconductor nano-wires

We present the properties of ballistic spin transport through magnetic barrier structures in semiconductor nano-wires. The Landauer's approach is adopted to calculation of the transmission probability and the conductance for various host material nano-wires which are different remarkably from each other in effective g-factors. A host material having small effective g-factor is quantized in the conductance and the spin-dependence is disappeared in it. Nevertheless this kind of behavior is broken for the host material having large effective g-factor and the spin-dependent splitting is shown.     

Spin-polarized transport properties of a pyridinium-based molecular spintronics device

By applying a first-principles approach based on non-equilibrium Green's functions combined with density functional theory, the transport properties of a pyridinium-based “radical-π-radical” molecular spintronics device are investigated. The obvious negative differential resistance (NDR) and spin current polarization (SCP) effect, and abnormal magnetoresistance (MR) are obtained. Orbital reconstruction is responsible for novel transport properties such as that the MR increases with bias and then decreases and that the NDR being present for both parallel and antiparallel magnetization configurations, which may have future applications in the field of molecular spintronics.     

Valley-dependent electron transport in ferromagnetic/normal/ferromagnetic silicene junction

The electron transport through ferromagnetic/normal/ferromagnetic silicene junction with an induced energy gap is investigated in this work. The energy gap can be tuned by applying electric field or exchange fields due to the buckled structure of silicene. We analyze the local electric field, exchange field, length of normal region-dependence transmission probabilities of four groups and valley conductance. These transmission probabilities and valley conductance can be turned on or off by adjusting the local electric field and exchange field. In particular, a fully valley polarized conductance with 80% transmission is found in this junction, which can be caused by the interplay of valley-dependent massive Dirac electron, the exchange potential and the on-site potential difference of sublattices. Our findings will benefit applications in silicene-based high performance nano-electronics.     

Spin transport investigation of two type silicene nanoribbons heterostructure

Based on first principles calculation method, we design and investigate the spin transport properties of two type heterostructures based on zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs). The first one consists of hydrogen-terminated ZSiNR (ZSiNR-H) and Rx-terminated ZSiNR (ZSiNR-Rx), here, Rx = O, S, P. The rectification behavior can be observed for heterostructures consisting of ZSiNR-H and ZSiNR-O (ZSiNR-S). The second one can be fabricated with a ZSiNR-Rx central scatter region between two ZSiNR-H electrodes. The results show that this device could maintain its good spin filtering effect for ZSiNR-O model in parallel (P) and antiparallel (AP) spin configuration with large bias range. Then we further investigate the spin-dependent transport with various length of ZSiNR-O region, and find that better spin filtering effect (near 100% spin polarization) can be observed for longer ZSiNR-O region. ZSiNR-S model show analogous spin filtering effect. However, neither rectification behavior nor spin filtering effect arise for ZSiNR-P models.     

Impact of Phosphorus superlattices on charge and spin dependent transport properties of zigzag silicene nanoribbons

To investigate charge and spin dependent conductance properties of Phosphorus doped zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs), we utilize recursive Green's function method and Landauer-Büttiker formalism. Our calculations are performed in the absence and presence of exchange magnetic fields with both parallel and antiparallel configurations. Considering a supperlattice of Phosphorus substituents in a periodic distribution at the edge of nanoribbon, the effect of increasing number of dopants and period of the distribution on transport properties are studied. It is found that transport properties of doped ZSiNRs vary with doping concentration according to being odd or even of number of dopants. For parallel configuration, doped ZSiNR with various concentrations works as a controllable spin filter with Fermi energy. Increasing doping concentration leads to increasing size of conductance gap and improvement of controlling quality of spin-filtering property while increasing period of Phosphorus atomic distribution has destructive effect on size of conductance gap and destroys spin-filtering property. Moreover, we show that although the same results are obtained for transport properties of doped ZSiNR with various concentrations of Phosphorus atoms in presence of antiparallel exchange magnetic fields, a completely controllable spin-filtering property cannot be achieved by Fermi energy changes.     

Quantum capacitance in monolayers of silicene and related buckled materials

Silicene and related buckled materials are distinct from both the conventional two dimensional electron gas and the famous graphene due to strong spin orbit coupling and the buckled structure. These materials have potential to overcome limitations encountered for graphene, in particular the zero band gap and weak spin orbit coupling. We present a theoretical realization of quantum capacitance which has advantages over the scattering problems of traditional transport measurements. We derive and discuss quantum capacitance as a function of the Fermi energy and temperature taking into account electron–hole puddles through a Gaussian broadening distribution. Our predicted results are very exciting and pave the way for future spintronic and valleytronic devices.     

Structural and electronic properties of a single C chain doped zigzag silicene nanoribbon

The structural and electronic properties of zigzag edge silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs) doped with a single C chain have been studied by first-principles projector augmented wave (PAW) potential within the density function theory (DFT) framework. The results show that the C chain is almost close to a straight one which results in a transverse contraction near C chain and thus the ribbon width. The C–Si and Si–H bonds are typical ionic bonds while the C–H bond is a covalence bond. ZSiNRs doped with a single C chain are all metallic independent of the position of the C chain. All these results have been explained satisfactory from the electronegativity difference and the bound force to the electrons because of the atom radius difference between the elements.     

Spin polarization and spin separation realized in the double-helical molecules

We investigate the electron transport through one double-helical molecule with four terminals, by considering one terminal to be the source and others to be the drains. It is found that notable spin polarizations simultaneously occur during the processes of intra-chain electron tunneling and inter-chain electron reflection. More importantly, in these two processes, the spin polarizations always show similar strengths and opposite directions. Based on these results, we consider that the spin polarization and spin separation can be co-realized in this system.     

Spin thermoelectricity in dualhydrogenated zigzag silicene nanoribbons with surface adsorptions

The buckled structure of silicene provides a feasible pathway to influence its electric and magnetic properties via surface adsorptions. Here, we investigate the magnetic and spin thermoelectric transport properties of dual-hydrogenated zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs) without/with the hydrogen adsorption. The band gaps for two spin channels in ZSiNRs under the hydrogen adsorption are shifted near the Fermi level, leading to the appearance of spin Seebeck effect. Using a temperature difference, one can derive the carriers with the different spin index to flow in the opposite direction. Moreover, a large rectification ratio close to 10⁵ at room temperature is achieved for the spin current, and the charge current exhibits a remarkable negative differential thermoelectric resistance (NDTR) behavior. The results presented here are fascinating potential applications in the fields of silicon-based spin caloritronic devices.     

Electronic and magnetic properties of silicene nanoflakes by first-principles calculations

The geometric, electronic, and magnetic properties of silicene nanoflakes (SiNFs) and corresponding two-dimensional (2D) framework assembled by SiNFs are studied by first-principles calculations. We find that the hexagonal SiNFs exhibit semiconducting behavior, while the triangular SiNFs is magnetic. Although the triangular SiNFs linked directly is antiferromagnetic, the system linked with an odd-number Si chains can exhibit ferromagnetic (FM) behavior, which is ascribed to anti-parallel spin rule on Si atoms, consistent with the Lieb–Mattis criterion. More interestingly, the 2D framework composed of triangular SiNFs linked by a Si atom shows a half-metallic character with an integer magnetic moment. These results provide a better understanding for silicene-based nanoflakes, and expect to pave an avenue to assemble FM silicon materials in spintronics.     

Spin-polarized transport in carbon nanotubes

We present transport measurements of ferromagnetically contacted carbon nanotubes. In both single- and multi-walled nanotube devices, a spin valve effect is observed due to spin-polarized transport. In one single-walled nanotube device, the spin-valve effect is suppressed as the influence of Coulomb charging is observed at around 10 K. To help understand the interplay between the Coulomb charging and the spin-polarized transport we investigated the temperature dependence of the carbon nanotube magnetoresistance.     

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.     

Spin-polarized transport in zigzag graphene nanoribbons adsorbing nonmagnetic atomic chain

We theoretically study the electron transport properties in a ferromagnetic/normal/ferromagnetic tunnel junction, which is deposited on the top of a topological surface. The conductance at the parallel (P) configuration can be much bigger than that at the antiparallel (AP) configuration. Compared P with AP configuration, there exists a shift of phase which can be tuned by gate voltage. We find that the exchange field weakly affects the conductance of carriers for P configuration but can dramatically suppress the conductance of carriers for AP configuration. This controllable electron transport implies anomalous magnetoresistance in this topological spin valve, which may contribute to the development of spintronics. In addition, there shows an existence of Fabry-Perot-like electron interference in our model based on the topological insulator, which does not appear in the same model based on the two dimensional electron gas.     

Tailoring atomic structure to control the electronic transport in zigzag graphene nanoribbon

We have performed ab initio   density functional theory calculation to study the electronic transport properties of the tailored zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) with particular electronic transport channels. Our results demonstrated that tailoring the atomic structure had significantly influenced the electronic transport of the defective nanostructures, and could lead to the metal-semiconducting transition when sufficient atoms are tailored. The asymmetric I–V$I\text{–}V$ characteristics as a result of symmetry breaking have been exhibited, which indicates the route to utilize GNR as a basic component for novel nanoelectronics.     

Electron-phonon coupling in armchair silicene nanoribbons

We report the effects of electron-phonon coupling on the charge density distribution of polarons in armchair nanoribbons of silicene by using an extended tight-binding model with lattice relaxation. The results show that the charge distribution in silicene nanoribbons is analogous to graphene and that the charge localization increases when the intensity of electron-phonon coupling also increases. We further show that silicene nanoribbons may be a conducting or semiconducting material, depending on both the width of the nanoribbon and the possibility of polaron formation. This contribution provides additional insight into the behavior of polarons in silicene nanoribbons, systems of great interest.     

量子点双链中电子自旋极化输运性质

利用非平衡格林函数方法, 研究了与单个量子点耦合的量子点双链中电子自旋极化输运性质. 由于系统中Rashba自旋轨道耦合产生的自旋相关的相位, 电子通过上下两种路径时, 自旋不同的电子干涉情况不同, 从而导致了电极中的自旋极化流. 左右两电极间的偏压使单个量子点中的自旋积聚在很大能量区域内能够保持较大的值. 由于系统结构的左右不对称, 正负偏压下自旋积聚情况完全不同. 这些计算结果将有助于实验上设计新型的自旋电子学器件.     

A high-efficiency spin polarizer based on edge and surface disordered silicene nanoribbons

Using the tight-binding formalism, we explore the effect of weak disorder upon the conductance of zigzag edge silicene nanoribbons (SiNRs), in the limit of phase-coherent transport. We find that the fashion of the conductance varies with disorder, and depends strongly on the type of disorder. Conductance dips are observed at the Van Hove singularities, owing to quasilocalized states existing in surface disordered SiNRs. A conductance gap is observed around the Fermi energy for both edge and surface disordered SiNRs, because edge states are localized. The average conductance of the disordered SiNRs decreases exponentially with the increase of disorder, and finally tends to disappear. The near-perfect spin polarization can be realized in SiNRs with a weak edge or surface disorder, and also can be attained by both the local electric field and the exchange field.