Electronic and spin transport properties of a benzene molecule connected to graphene leads

Electronic and spin transport properties of a benzene molecule connected to semi‐infinite armchair and zigzag graphene nano‐ribbon leads are calculated using non‐equilibrium Green function (NEGF) method at zero bias regime. It is shown that, the molecule is conductive in a specific range of energy for both armchair and zigzag leads. This behavior is similar for both kinds of leads. In presence of Rashba spin–orbit interaction, the molecule shows spin filtering properties for both kinds of leads but these properties are not similar for armchair and zigzag leads. Also, a spin‐polarized current is seen in the molecule connected to zigzag leads. The benzene molecule with Rashba spin–orbit interaction can be considered as an excellent candidate for molecular electronic and spintronic devices which can have very small dimensions relative to the conventional semiconductor devices.