Effectuating tunable valley selection via multi-terminal monolayer graphene devices

TL;DR

This paper introduces a tunable all-electrical valley polarizer using zigzag edge graphene nanoribbons in a multi-terminal device, enabling independent control of valley filtering regimes for advanced valleytronic applications.

Contribution

It proposes a novel graphene-based device with dual operational regimes for valley filtering, enhancing control and tunability in valleytronics beyond existing methods.

Findings

Device achieves high valley polarization through geometry optimization.

Multimode operation influences valley polarization behavior.

Various factors like edge states and p-n junctions affect polarization.

Abstract

Valleytronics using two-dimensional materials opens unprecedented opportunities for information processing with the valley polarizer being a basic building block. Paradigms such as strain engineering, the inclusion of line defects, and the application of electrostatic-magnetic fields extensively explored for creating valley polarization suffer from limitations like smaller transmission or the lack of polarization directionality. We propose an all-electrical valley polarizer using zigzag edge graphene nanoribbons in a multi-terminal device geometry, that can be gate-tuned to operate along two independent regimes: (i) terminal-specific valley filter that utilizes bandstructure engineering, and (ii) parity-specific valley filter that exploits the parity selection rule in zigzag edge graphene. We show that the device exhibits intriguing physics in the multimode regime of operation that affects the valley polarization and hence investigate various factors affecting the polarization in wide device geometries, such as, optical analogs of graphene Dirac fermions, angle-selective transmission via p-n junctions, and the localization of edge states. We optimize the geometry of the proposed device to achieve maximum valley polarization, thereby, paving the way toward a physics based tunable valleytronic device design using monolayer graphene.