Valley filter from magneto-tunneling between single and bi-layer graphene

Abstract

We consider tunneling transport between two parallel graphene sheets where one is a single-layer sample and the other one a bilayer. In the presence of an in-plane magnetic field, the interplay between combined energy and momentum conservation in a tunneling event and the distinctive chiral nature of charge carriers in the two systems turns out to favor tunneling of electrons from one of the two valleys in the graphene Brillouin zone. Adjusting the field strength enables manipulation of the valley polarization of the current, which reaches its maximum value of 100% concomitantly with a maximum of the tunneling conductance.