Spin-dependent transport in a multifunctional spintronic device with graphene nanoribbon electrodes

We investigated the spin-dependent transport properties of a molecular device consisting of a phenanthrene molecule anchored via two carbon atoms to zigzag graphene nanoribbon electrodes, using density functional theory combined with the nonequilibrium Green’s function method. The results of the calculations show that the device exhibits perfect spin filtering and negative differential resistance effect in both parallel and antiparallel configuration, and perfect dual spin filtering and large spin rectification in antiparallel configuration. In addition, we changed the direction of the phenanthrene plane to be perpendicular to the two electrode planes, enabling molecular switching. The proposed structure combines interesting properties that enable its use in multifunctional nanoelectronic devices.