Pure spin current generation with photogalvanic effect in graphene interconnect junctions

Nanophotonics

article

Yan-Hong Zhou¹  Shaohui Yu²  Yuejun Li¹  Xin Luo¹  Xiaohong Zheng¹  Lei Zhang⁴ 

[1] College of Science, East China Jiao Tong University;School of Mathematics and Statistics, Hefei Normal University;Key Laboratory of Materials Physics, Institute of Solid State Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences;State Key Laboratory of Quantum Optics and Quantum Optics Devices, Institute of Laser Spectroscopy, Shanxi University;Collaborative Innovation Center of Extreme Optics, Shanxi University

关键词: density functional theory;    graphene;    photon;    pure spin current;    spintronics;   

DOI  :  10.1515/nanoph-2020-0646

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: De Gruyter

【 摘 要 】

We investigate the photovoltaic behaviors of magnetic graphene interconnect junctions, which are constructed by zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs), with the aim to produce pure spin current by photogalvanic effect (PGE). Two kinds of interconnect junctions are designed by connecting two 6-ZGNR with a carbon hexagon (C6) and a carbon tetragon (C4), respectively. It is found that zero charge current is produced under irradiation of light in both structures due to the presence of spatial inversion symmetry. Nevertheless, behind the zero charge current, net pure spin current is produced in the structure with a C6, but not in the structure with a C4. This difference originates from their different edge state distribution and different spatial inversion symmetry of the spin density. However, interestingly, local edge pure spin current can be obtained in both structures. More importantly, the pure spin current generation is independent of the photon energy, polarization type or polarization angle, suggesting a robust way of generating pure spin current with PGE and new possibility of graphene’s applications in spintronics.

【 授权许可】

CC BY