Valley-polarized tunneling currents in bilayer graphene tunneling transistors

J. J. P. Thompson, D. J. Leech, and M. Mucha-Kruczyński
Phys. Rev. B 99, 085420 – Published 15 February 2019

Abstract

We study theoretically the electron current across a monolayer graphene/hexagonal boron nitride/bilayer graphene tunneling junction in an external magnetic field perpendicular to the layers. We show that change in effective tunneling barrier width for electrons on different graphene layers of bilayer graphene, coupled with the fact that its Landau level wave functions are not equally distributed amongst the layers with a distribution that is reversed between the two valleys, lead to valley polarization of the tunneling current. We estimate that valley polarization 70% can be achieved in high quality devices at B=1 T. Moreover, we demonstrate that strong valley polarization can be obtained both in the limit of strong-momentum-conserving tunneling and in lower quality devices where this constraint is lifted.

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  • Received 13 November 2018
  • Revised 20 January 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.99.085420

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

J. J. P. Thompson1,*, D. J. Leech1,2, and M. Mucha-Kruczyński1,3

  • 1Department of Physics, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom
  • 2Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England Bristol BS3 2JT, United Kingdom
  • 3Centre for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, University of Bath, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7AY, United Kingdom

  • *j.j.p.thompson@bath.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 99, Iss. 8 — 15 February 2019

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