Transport properties of bare and hydrogenated zigzag silicene nanoribbons: Negative differential resistances and perfect spin-filtering effects

Ab initio calculations are performed to investigate the spin-polarized transport properties of the bare and hydrogenated zigzag silicene nanoribbons (ZSiNRs). The results show that the ZSiNRs with symmetric (asymmetric) edges prefer the ferromagnetic (antiferromagnetic) as their ground states with the semiconductor properties, while the accordingly antiferromagnetic (ferromagnetic) states exhibit the metallic behaviors. These facts result in a giant magnetoresistance behavior between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic states in the low bias-voltage regime. Moreover, in the ferromagnetic ZSiNRs with asymmetric edges, a perfect spin-filtering effect with 100% positive electric current polarization can be achieved by altering the bias voltage. In addition, we also find that the negative differential resistances prefer the metastable states. The findings here indicate that the asymmetric and symmetric ZSiNRs are promising materials for spintronic applications.