Researchers from the NUS discovered that manipulating the electron spin lowers the contact resistance in graphene electronics.
Graphene is an excellent conductor, but metal-graphene interfaces suffer from large electrical resistance. The researchers have shown that edga-contacted device geometries in metallic-graphene interfaces feature some of the lowest contact resistances reported to date - significantly lower than in surface-contracted interfaces. The researchers explain that this is due to the different behavior of electron spins in these geometries.
The next phase for the researchers is to manage to tune the contact resistance in ferromagnetic metal-graphene contacts by varying the spin state of the metal, and also look into other device parameters such as spin injection efficiency and spin lifetime at these interfaces for spintronics applications.