Interface sensitivity on spin transport through a three-terminal graphene nanoribbon

TL;DR

This study explores how the placement of leads affects spin transport in a three-terminal graphene nanoribbon with Rashba spin-orbit interaction, demonstrating its potential as an efficient spin filter device.

Contribution

It reveals the impact of lead placement on spin-polarized transmission and identifies symmetry relations, advancing the design of graphene-based spintronic devices.

Findings

Three-terminal GNR effectively filters spins into two outputs.

Lead placement significantly influences spin-polarized transmission.

Symmetry relations exist between outgoing leads.

Abstract

Spin dependent transport in a three-terminal graphene nanoribbon (GNR) is investigated in presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction. Such a three-terminal structure is shown to be highly effective in filtering electron spins from an unpolarized source simultaneously into two output leads and thus can be used as an efficient spin filter device compared to a two-terminal one. The study of sensitivity of the spin-polarized transmission on the location of the outgoing leads results in interesting consequences and is explored in details. There exist certain symmetry relations between the two outgoing leads with regard to spin-polarized transport, especially when they are connected to the system in a particular manner. We believe that the prototype presented here can be realized experimentally and hence the results can also be verified.