Anisotropy of magnetic interactions and spin filter behavior in hexagonal (Ga,Mn)As nanoribbons

The electronic and magnetic properties of Mn doped hexagonal GaAs nanoribbons ((Ga,Mn)As NRs) have been investigated using spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT), and the spin-resolved transport behaviors of (Ga,Mn)As NRs have also been studied with non-equilibrium Green function theory. The calculations show that every Mn dopant brings 4 Bohr magneton (μB) magnetic moment and the ground states of (Ga,Mn)As NRs are ferromagnetic (FM). The investigation of magnetic anisotropies shows that magnetic interactions are dependent on both the distribution directions of Mn atoms and the edge effect of the NRs. The studies of electronic structures and transport properties show that incorporation of Mn atom turns GaAs NR from semiconducting to half-metallic, which significantly enhances the spin-up conductivity and strongly weakens the spin-down conductivity, resulting in non-monatomic variations of spin-dependent conductivities. The nearly 100% spin polarization shown in (Ga,Mn)As NR may be used for low dimensional spin filters, even with as large a bias as 0.9 V. Also, (Ga,Mn)As NR can be used to generate a relatively stable spin-polarized current in a wide bias interval.