Exchange coupling between two ferromagnetic electrodes separated by a graphene nanoribbon

Abstract

In this study, based on the self-energy method and the total energy calculation, the indirect exchange coupling between two semi-infinite ferromagnetic strips (FM electrodes) separated by metallic graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) is investigated. In order to form a FM/GNR/FM junction, a graphitic region of finite length is coupled to the FM electrodes along graphitic zigzag or armchair interfaces of width N. The numerical results show that, the exchange coupling strength which can be obtained from the direrence between the total energies of electrons in the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic couplings, has an oscillatory behavior, and depends on the Fermi energy and the length of the central region. © 2008 IOP Publishing Ltd.