Single-parameter quantum charge and spin pumping in armchair graphene nanoribbons

We investigate quantum charge and spin pumping in armchair graphene nanoribbons under a single ac gate voltage connected with nonmagnetic/ferromagnetic leads via the nonequilibrium Green's function method. In the case of nonmagnetic leads, where only part of the nanoribbon is subject to an ac gate voltage to break the left-right spatial symmetry, we discover that peaks of the charge pumping current appear at the Fermi energies around the sub-band edges in the ac-field-free region of the nanoribbon. In the case of ferromagnetic leads with the lead magnetizations being antiparallel to break the left-right symmetry, similar peaks appear in the spin pumping current when the Fermi energies are around the edges of the the majority-spin sub-bands in the ferromagnetic leads. All these peaks originate from the pronounced symmetry breaking in the transmissions with energies being around the corresponding sub-band edges. Moreover, we predict a pure spin current in the case of ferromagnetic leads with the whole graphene nanoribbon under an ac gate voltage. The ac-field-strength and ac-field-frequency dependencies of the pumping current are also investigated with the underlying physics revealed.