Zener quantum dot spin filter in a carbon nanotube

Abstract

We predict and analyze a novel spin filter in semiconducting carbon nanotubes. By using local electrostatic gates, the conduction and valence bands can be modulated to form a double-barrier structure. The confined region below the valence band defines a Zener quantum dot, which exhibits resonant tunneling. The resonances split in a magnetic field to make a bipolar spin filter for applications in spintronics and quantum information processing. We model this using k*p envelope function theory and show that this is in excellent agreement with a corresponding tight-binding calculation.

8 pages latex, 5 eps figs. Accepted to J. Phys. Cond. Mat

References in corpus (6)

• Kondo physics in carbon nanotubes
• General Green's function formalism for transport calculations with spd-Hamiltonians and giant magnetoresistance in Co and Ni based magnetic multilayers
• Quantum Dot as Spin Filter and Spin Memory
• Electron-hole symmetry in a semiconducting carbon nanotube quantum dot
• Lateral scaling in carbon nanotube field-effect transistors
• Local gating of carbon nanotubes