Spin-polarized current produced by graphene superlattice

•We investigate the spin-dependent current for magnetic graphene superlattice.•The spin polarization depends on the Rashba spin–orbit interaction and magnetic field.•The angular range of the spin-inversion depends on the number of magnetic barriers.•The spin current has a gap, which increase by increasing the number of barriers.

We study spin transport through a magnetic graphene superlattice in the presence of Rashba spin–orbit interaction (RSOI) modulated by a homogeneous constant electric field. It is found that RSOI alone cannot generate spin-polarized current, but when magnetic field combines with the RSOI, the spin-polarized current can be observed and increases by increasing the magnetic field. In addition, the efficiency of spin-inversion can be efficiently controlled by the number of barriers. As the number of magnetic barriers increases, the angular range of the spin transmission coefficients without spin-flip and with spin-flip decrease, the gaps in spin transmission coefficients and the spin-dependent current versus external electric field become wider.