Nanostructured graphene for spintronics

Abstract

Zigzag edges of the honeycomb structure of graphene exhibit magnetic polarization making them attractive as building blocks for spintronic devices. Here, we show that devices with zigzag edged triangular antidots perform essential spintronic functionalities, such as spatial spin-splitting or spin filtering of unpolarized incoming currents. Near-perfect performance can be obtained with optimized structures. The device performance is robust against substantial disorder. The gate-voltage dependence of transverse resistance is qualitatively different for spin-polarized and spin-unpolarized devices, and can be used as a diagnostic tool. Importantly, the suggested devices are feasible within current technologies.