Spin Filter and Negative Differential Resistance in Carbon-Based Device with Defects

Abstract

In this work, we report the electronic transport properties of an atomic carbon chain sandwiched between two ferromagnetic zigzag graphene nanoribbon electrodes with symmetrical nitrogen-vacancy defects using the density functional theory combining with the non-equilibrium Green’s function method. Our results show that a perfect spin filter is observed with almost 100% spin polarization. Moreover, we also see the negative differential resistance effect from the spin-up current under a low positive voltage bias. These results may promise potential applications in spintronic devices with multi-function in the future.