Spintronic Transport in Armchair Graphene Nanoribbon with Ferromagnetic Electrodes: Half-Metallic Properties

Utilizing first-principles theory, we demonstrate that half-metallicity can be realized in a junction composed of non-magnetic armchair graphene nanoribbon (AGNR) and ferromagnetic Ni electrodes. The half-metallic property originates from the AGNR energy gap of the up spin located at the Fermi energy, while large electronic states are generated for the down spin. By altering the interlayer distance and the contact area, namely, the strength of AGNR-Ni interaction, the efficiency of the spin filter becomes lower, since the energy gap moves away from the Fermi energy with the variation of charge transfer intensity.