Spintronic devices from bilayer graphene in contact to ferromagnetic insulators

Abstract

Graphene-based materials show promise for spintronic applications due to their potentially large spin coherence length. On the other hand, because of their small intrinsic spin-orbit interaction, an external magnetic source is desirable in order to perform spin manipulation. Because of the flat nature of graphene, the proximity interaction with a ferromagnetic insulator (FI) surface seems a natural way to introduce magnetic properties into graphene. Exploiting the peculiar electronic properties of bilayer graphene coupled with FIs, we show that it is possible to devise very efficient gate-tunable spin-rotators and spin-filters in a parameter regime of experimental feasibility. We also analyze the composition of the two spintronic building blocks in a spin-field-effect transistor.