Origin of spin polarization in an edge boron doped zigzag graphene nanoribbon: a potential spin filter

Abstract

To realize a graphene based spintronic device, the prime challenge is to control the electronic structure of edges. In this work we find the origin of the spin filtering property in edge boron doped zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) and provide a guide to preparing a graphene based next-generation spin filter based device. Here, we unveil the role of orbitals (p-electron) to tune the electronic, magnetic and transport properties of edge B doped ZGNRs. When all the edge carbon atoms at one of the edges of ZGNRs are replaced by B (100% edge B doping), the system undergoes a semiconductor to metal transition. The role of passivation of the edge with single/double atomic hydrogen on the electronic properties and its relation with the p-electron is correlated in-depth. 50% edge B doped ZGNRs (50% of the edge C atoms at one of the edges are replaced by B) also show half-metallicity when the doped edge is left unpassivated. The half-metallic systems show 100% spin filtering efficiency for a wide range of bias voltages. Zero-bias transmission function of the other configurations shows asymmetric behavior for the up and down spin channels, thereby indicating their possible application potential in nano-spintronics.