By using first-principles calculations, we predict that an in-plane homogenous electrical field can induce half-metallicity in hydrogen-terminated zigzag silicene and germanene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs and ZGeNRs). A dual-gated finite ZSiNR device reveals a nearly perfect spin-filter efficiency of up to 99% while a quadruple-gated finite ZSiNR device serves as an effective spin field effect transistor (FET) with an on/off current ratio of over 100 from ab initio quantum transport simulation. This discovery opens up novel prospect of silicene and germanene in spintronics.
@article{arxiv.1304.2853,
title = {Half-Metallic Silicene and Germanene Nanoribbons: towards High-Performance Spintronics Device},
author = {Yangyang Wang and Jiaxin Zheng and Zeyuan Ni and Ruixiang Fei and Qihang Liu and Ruge Quhe and Chengyong Xu and Jing Zhou and Zhengxiang Gao and Jing Lu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1304.2853},
year = {2015}
}