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Spin-dependent transport in a multifunctional spintronic device with graphene nanoribbon electrodes

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Abstract

We investigated the spin-dependent transport properties of a molecular device consisting of a phenanthrene molecule anchored via two carbon atoms to zigzag graphene nanoribbon electrodes, using density functional theory combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function method. The results of the calculations show that the device exhibits perfect spin filtering and negative differential resistance effect in both parallel and antiparallel configuration, and perfect dual spin filtering and large spin rectification in antiparallel configuration. In addition, we changed the direction of the phenanthrene plane to be perpendicular to the two electrode planes, enabling molecular switching. The proposed structure combines interesting properties that enable its use in multifunctional nanoelectronic devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under grant nos. JUSRP51628B and JUSRP51716A, and Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province Under Grant No. SJCX17_0497.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoxiao Han, Jingjuan Yang, Peipei Yuan, Baoan Bian & Haifeng Shi

  2. School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, People’s Republic of China

    Baoan Bian & Yuqiang Ding

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  1. Xiaoxiao Han
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Correspondence to Baoan Bian.

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Han, X., Yang, J., Yuan, P. et al. Spin-dependent transport in a multifunctional spintronic device with graphene nanoribbon electrodes. J Comput Electron 17, 604–612 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10825-018-1148-2

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