Adiabatically twisting a magnetic molecule to generate pure spin currents in graphene

Abstract

The spin–orbit effect in graphene is too muted to have any observable significance with respect to its application in spintronics. However, graphene technology is too valuable to be rendered impotent to spin transport. In this communication we look at the effect of adiabatically twisting a single-molecule magnet embedded in a graphene monolayer. Surprisingly, we see that pure spin currents (zero charge current) can be generated from the system via quantum pumping. In addition we also see that spin-selective current can be pumped from the system. The pure spin current seen is quite resilient to temperature while disorder has a limited effect. Furthermore, the direction of these spin-pumped currents can be easily and exclusively controlled by the magnetization of the single-molecule magnet, with disorder having no effect on the magnetization control of the pumped spin currents.