A spin-valve device based on dumbbell-shaped graphene nanoislands

Electron transport in a graphene nanoisland with mixed edge profiles is studied by using the spin-unrestricted Hubbard model. The dumbbell-shaped device consists of two hexagonal nanoislands with zigzag edges connected by a armchair nanoribbon. Including the nearest-neighbor hopping and on-site Coulomb repulsion, the self-consistent calculation shows that two distinct ferromagnetic configurations allowed for the proposed device act like ON and OFF states for spin-polarized electrons. Furthermore, the spin-valve effect is demonstrated, as a proof of concept, in the device occupied by one ferromagnetic configuration without resorting to external magnetic or electric fields. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3630229]