Asymmetrical edges induced strong current-polarization in embedded graphene nanoribbons

Abstract

We investigate the electronic structures and transport properties of the embedded zigzag graphene nanoribbon (E-ZGNR) in hexagonal boron nitride trenches, which are achievable in recent experiments. Our first principles results show that the E-ZGNR has a significant enhanced conductivity relative to common ZGNRs due to the existence of asymmetrical edge structures. Moreover, only one spin-orientation electrons possess a widely opened band gap at the magnetic ground state with anti-ferromagnetic configuration, resulting in a full current-polarization at low bias region. Our findings indicate that the state-of-the-art embedding technology is quite useful for tuning the electronic structure of ZGNR and building possible spin injection and spin filter devices in spintronics.