Graphene could help enable a new generation of low-power electronic devices based on spintronics, an approach that uses the spin of electrons rather than their charge to store and process information. However, progress has been limited by imperfections at the interfaces where electrical contacts meet graphene, which can disrupt spin information before it is detected.
Researchers led by Assistant Professor Ahmet Avsar have addressed this challenge in two complementary studies published in Nature Communications. By engineering atomically clean interfaces, the team achieved record electrical spin signals in graphene devices and revealed the material’s intrinsic spin transport properties with greater clarity.
In the first study, the researchers redesigned the fabrication process for graphene spin devices, assembling atomically thin layers in an inert glovebox to reduce contamination and create flatter, cleaner interfaces. This enabled highly efficient spin injection and detection, with spin polarisation approaching 90 per cent and spin signals more than two orders of magnitude larger than those typically reported in graphene spin valves.
Building on this platform, the second study showed that nearby magnetic materials can reshape graphene’s electronic structure through the magnetic proximity effect. This allowed the team to engineer and observe spin-dependent electronic bands in graphene, pointing towards possible spin transistors that can switch between highly polarised spin states using very small gate voltages.
Together, the two studies address key barriers in graphene spintronics by improving spin transport and enabling greater control over graphene’s spin-dependent electronic properties. The findings bring graphene-based spin logic and memory devices a step closer to practical use in future ultra-low-power electronics.
