Spin-dependent transport through interacting graphene armchair nanoribbons

We investigate spin effects in transport across fully interacting, finite-size graphene armchair nanoribbons (ACNs) contacted to collinearly spin-polarized leads. In such systems, the presence of short-range Coulomb interaction between bulk states and states localized at the ribbon ends leads to novel spin-dependent phenomena. Specifically, the total spin of the low-energy many-body states is conserved during tunneling but that of the bulk and end states is not. As a consequence, in the single-electron regime, dominated by Coulomb blockade phenomena, we find pronounced negative differential conductance features for ACNs contacted to parallel polarized leads. These features are, however, absent in an anti-parallel contact configuration, which in turn leads, within a certain gate and bias voltage region, to a negative tunneling magneto-resistance. Moreover, we analyze the changes in the transport characteristics under the influence of an external magnetic field.