Realizing stable fully spin polarized transport in SiC nanoribbons with dopant

Intrinsic half-metallicity recently reported in zigzag edged SiC nanoribbons is basically undetectable due to negligible energy difference between the antiferromagnetic (AFM) and ferromagnetic (FM) configurations. In this Letter, by density functional theory calculations, we demonstrate a scheme of N doping at the carbon edge to selectively close the edge state channel at this edge and achieve 100% spin filtering, no matter whether it is in an AFM state or FM state. This turns SiC nanoribbon into a promising material for obtaining stable and completely spin polarized transport and may find application in spintronic devices. Published by AIP Publishing.