Spin relaxation in strained graphene nanoribbons: armchair vs zigzag edges

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ripple waves from electromechanical effects influence spin relaxation in strained graphene nanoribbons, revealing tunable spin flip behaviors for potential straintronic applications.

Contribution

It provides analytical and numerical analysis showing ripple waves can control spin relaxation in armchair and zigzag GNRs, with implications for device engineering.

Findings

Spin flip behaviors can be tuned ON and OFF by ripple waves.

Tuning of spin extends to larger widths in armchair GNRs.

Relaxation rate vanishes as the fifth power of length.

Abstract

We study the influence of ripple waves originating from the electromechanical effects on spin relaxation caused by electromagnetic fields in armchair and zigzag graphene nanoribbons (GNRs). By utilizing analytical expressions supported by numerical simulations, we show that it is possible to tune the spin flip behaviors ON and OFF due to ripple waves in GNRs for potential applications in straintronic devices. This finding is similar to recently made observations on the design of spintronic devices in III-V semiconductor quantum dots, where the sign change in the effective Land$\mathrm{\acute{e}}$ $g$-factor can be engineered with the application of gate controlled electric fields. In particular, we show that the tuning of spin extends to larger widths for the armchair GNRs than for the zigzag GNRs. Here we also report that the relaxation rate vanishes like $L^5$.