Giant magnetoresistance and spin-filtering effects in zigzag graphene and hexagonal boron nitride based heterojunction

•The spin-dependent electronic transport of ZGNR and boron nitride based heterojunction.•The magnetoresistance ratio can reach to 106.•The perfect spin-filtering device with nearly 100% spin filtering efficiency.

The spin-dependent electronic transport properties of heterojunction constructed by bare zigzag graphene nanoribbon and hexagonal boron nitride nanoribbon are investigated by the non-equilibrium Green's function method in combination with the density functional theory. The results show that the giant magnetoresistance effect can be realized in the heterojunction, and the magnetoresistance ratio can reach to 106. Moreover, it is found that the heterojunction is a good spin-filtering device with nearly 100% spin filtering efficiency at a wide bias voltage region in both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic magnetic configurations.