Magnetic States of Zigzag Graphene Nanoribbons from First Principles

Journal Article · Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2009 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3147854· OSTI ID:1021219

Wu, F; Kan, E; Xiang, H; Wei, S H; Whangbo, M H; Yang, J

The nature of the magnetic states of zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) was explored on the basis of density functional calculations to understand why they are apparently nonmagnetic. Our study shows that the magnetic moments of ZGNRs are destroyed by p-type or n-type carrier doping with {approx}10{sup 13} carriers/cm{sup 2} per ribbon, which is close to the amount of unpaired spins that ZGNRs are expected to have. Thus the extrinsic sources of carrier doping should be removed to observe the expected magnetic character of ZGNRs.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1021219
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 22, 2009; Related Information: Article No. 223105; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
FUNCTIONALS
MAGNETIC MOMENTS
PHYSICS
Basic Sciences