Vacuum barrier induced large spin polarization, giant magnetoresistance, and pure spin photocurrent in ferromagnetic zigzag graphene nanoribbons

Based on first-principle calculations combined with non-equilibrium Green's function method, we investigate the spin-polarized transport properties of a two-probe device which consists of a vacuum barrier sandwiched between two semi-infinite ferromagnetic zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs). It is well known that any vacuum barrier itself is not spin-polarized, and meanwhile, the infinite pristine ferromagnetic ZGNR presents no spin polarization in the transmission function around the Fermi level. However, our computational results indicate that robust large spin polarization is found in the proposed device. More interestingly, giant magnetoresistance up to 3.0x10(8)% can be obtained at low bias voltage. Furthermore, the photogalvanic effect-induced fully spin-polarized photocurrent or pure spin photocurrent can be generated in such device by illumination with polarized light, depending on the symmetry of structure. Consequently, our results indicate that vacuum barrier may show interesting spin-polarized transport properties in certain systems and should be taken into consideration in the construction of molecular junctions and spintronic devices.