Mirroring and reversible fine-tuning of the transport spin-polarization in PC3 nanoribbons based on an electrical method

Abstract

The electrical approach is favored over the conventional magnetic approach for its low energy consumption and continuously variable control of spin polarization. Inspired by the recently reported PC3 monolayer, we investigate its spin-dependent electron transmission characteristics through the first-principles calculations. The results show that the transmission peaks with opposite spin directions at the Fermi level have precisely opposite responses to the gate voltage, which leads to the system being able to alter between spin-polarized and unpolarized states, and as well as achieving any ratio between − 100 % and 100 % for spin-up and spin-down electrons. Notably, this regulation is also reversible and mirror-symmetric. Further research demonstrates that the crux lies in the particular transmission peak contributed by the edge sp2-hybridized C atoms. This study sheds new light on the potential of PC3 as a novel nanoelectronic material for spintronics applications, suggesting that it can be used to create bipolar spin filters with tunable filtering effects.