Temperature-Dependent High Magnetoresistance in Zigzag Silicene Nanoribbon Heterostructure

Low power consumption makes spin caloritronic devices promising for a broad range of devices and circuits. A two-probe device is formed based on a lateral heterostructure of zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs). The heterostructure comprises two ZSiNRs: one with single hydrogen edge termination and the other with double hydrogen edge termination. When a thermal gradient is applied across the left and right lead of the proposed device, the ``spin-up'' and ``spin-down'' currents are observed to flow in opposite directions. In the proposed device, the spin current flows under the application of the thermal gradient and does not involve any external electrical bias. On applying a thermal gradient, the spin-up current is considerably larger than the spin-down current. It is also much larger than the current generated in the previous graphene-based devices. Most importantly, the device shows a high value of thermally assisted magnetoresistance, which can be helpful to implement low-power thermally operated spintronic devices.