Linear and nonlinear thermal spin transport properties of zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons with sp2–sp3 edges

Abstract

In this paper, we investigated the electronic structures and thermal spin transport properties of zigzag α-graphyne nanoribbons (N-ZαGYNRs) with sp2–sp3 edges. As N increased, the results showed that ZαGYNRs undergo a transformation from indirect-band-gap bipolar magnetic semiconductors into half-metallic materials. We then designed two spin caloritronics devices based on two representative ZαGYNRs with N = 4 and N = 12. Both linear and nonlinear thermal spin transport properties were found in the 4-ZαGYNRs device, but only linear thermal spin transport properties could be found in the 12-ZαGYNRs device. These discoveries indicate that ZαGYNRs are potential candidate materials for spin caloritronics device applications.