Field-effect transistor and giant magnetoresistance effect based on optically induced antichiral edge state in graphene

Abstract

We propose a peculiar method to induce the antichiral edge state (AES) based on off-resonant circularly polarized (ORCP) light and further study its edge-state transitions and transport properties in zigzag graphene nanoribbon. The results show that the vertical irradiation of the ORCP light on two boundaries of the system could be regarded as a modified Haldane model for inducing the AES. In particular, under the antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange field, the system with the AES can be controlled by an electric field between spin-polarized (SP) AESs and band insulators. As a result, a SPAES/AES/SPAES junction can be formed. In two SPAES regions, the spin orientation of the SPAES can be modulated by an electric field, giving rise to the switch between the on state with enhanced conductance contributed by two edge channels and a bulk channel, and the off state. Furthermore, by modulating the AFM exchange field in two SPAES regions as parallel and antiparallel configurations, the corresponding conductance is significantly different due to the different spin directions of the AES, finally leading to giant magnetoresistance effect that can be cut off and tuned on by an electric field. In addition, the transport properties based on the AESs are moderately robust against the disorder. These findings provide a view to study the peculiar AESs and are expected to be applied in electronic devices based on the AESs.