skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: Proximity-induced magnetization in graphene: Towards efficient spin gating
Gate-tunable spin-dependent properties could be induced in graphene at room temperature through the magnetic proximity effect by placing it in contact with a metallic ferromagnet. Because strong chemical bonding with the metallic substrate makes gating ineffective, an intervening passivation layer is needed. Previously considered passivation layers result in a large shift of the Dirac point away from the Fermi level, so that unrealistically large gate fields are required to tune the spin polarization in graphene (Gr). We show that a monolayer of Au or Pt used as the passivation layer between Co and graphene brings the Dirac point closer to the Fermi level. In the Co/Pt/Gr system the proximity-induced spin polarization in graphene and its gate control are strongly enhanced by the presence of a surface band near the Fermi level. Furthermore, the shift of the Dirac point could be eliminated entirely by selecting submonolayer coverage in the passivation layer. Our findings open a path towards experimental realization of an optimized two-dimensional system with gate-tunable spin-dependent properties.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1810266
PAR ID:
10180051
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Physical review materials
Volume:
4
Issue:
114006
ISSN:
2475-9953
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract We examine the characteristics of the microwave/mm-wave/terahertz radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in monolayer and bilayer graphene and report that the oscillation frequency of the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations in the massless, linearly dispersed monolayer graphene system should depend strongly both on the Fermi energy, and the radiation frequency, unlike in the case of the massive, parabolic, GaAs/AlGaAs 2D electron system, where the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillation frequency depends mainly on the radiation frequency. This possible dependence of the magnetoresistance oscillation frequency on the Fermi level at a fixed radiation frequency also suggests a sensitivity to the gate voltage in gated graphene, which suggests anin-situtunable photo-excitation response in monolayer graphene that could be useful for sensing applications. In sharp contrast to monolayer graphene, bilayer graphene is expected to show radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations more similar to the results observed in the GaAs/AlGaAs 2D system. Such expectations for the radiation-induced magnetoresistance oscillations are presented here to guide future experimental studies in both of these modern atomic layer material systems. 
    more » « less
  2. In this study, we present results of a comprehensive computational and experimental study of CoFeVAl and CoFeV0.5Mn0.5Al Heusler alloys. It is shown that while CoFeVAl exhibits a fairly large degree of spin polarization, this material is not half-metallic due to the presence of the vanadium spin-down states at the Fermi level. However, replacing 50% of vanadium with manganese results in a nearly half-metallic transition, largely due to the shift of the Fermi level towards occupied states. Moreover, the half-metallicity of CoFeV0.5Mn0.5Al is rather robust in a wide range of considered mechanical strain and under experimentally observed B2-type atomic disorder, thus making this alloy potentially suitable for practical spintronic applications. Both considered alloys exhibit ferromagnetic alignment at larger lattice constants, aside from a relatively small magnetic moment of vanadium which is anti-aligned with the magnetic moments of Co, Fe and Mn. We have synthesized both CoFeVAl and CoFeV0.5Mn0.5Al alloys in cubic structure with some structural disorder using arc melting and annealing. The structural and magnetic properties of the synthesized CoFeV0.5Mn0.5Al alloy are in good agreement with the theoretical calculations but vary slightly from the parent compound. 
    more » « less
  3. We present computational results on electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of CoVMnSb, a quaternary Heusler alloy. Our calculations indicate that this material may crystallize in two energetically close structural phases: inverted and regular cubic. The inverted cubic phase is the ground state, with ferrimagnetic alignment, and around 80% spin polarization. Despite having a relatively large bandgap in the minority-spin channel close to the Fermi level, this phase does not undergo a half-metallic transition under pressure. This is explained by the “pinning” of the Fermi level at the minority-spin states at the Γ point. At the same time, the regular cubic phase is half-metallic and retains its perfect spin polarization under a wide range of mechanical strain. Transition to a regular cubic phase may be attained by applying uniform pressure (but not biaxial strain). In practice, this pressure may be realized by an atomic substitution of non-magnetic atoms (Sb) with another non-magnetic atom (Si) of a smaller radius. Our calculations indicate that 25% substitution of Sb with Si results in a half-metallic regular cubic phase being the ground state. In addition, CoVMnSb0.5Si0.5 retains its half-metallic properties under a considerable range of mechanical pressure, as well as exhibits thermodynamic stability, thus making this alloy attractive for potential spintronic applications. We hope that the presented results will stimulate experimental efforts to synthesize this compound. 
    more » « less
  4. We propose a class of graphene-based moiré systems hosting flat bands on kagome and honeycomb moiré superlattices. These systems are formed by stacking a graphene layer on a 2D substrate with lattice constant approximately sqrt3 times that of graphene. When the moiré potentials are induced by a 2D irreducible corepresentation in the substrate, the model shows a rich phase diagram of low-energy bands including eigenvalue fragile phases as well as kagome and honeycomb flat bands. Spin-orbit coupling in the substrate can lift symmetry-protected degeneracies and create spin Chern bands, and we observe spin Chern numbers up to three. We additionally propose a moiré system formed by stacking two graphene-like layers with similar lattice constants and Fermi energies but with Dirac Fermi velocities of opposite sign. This system exhibits multiple kagome and honeycomb flat bands simultaneously. Both models we propose resemble the hypermagic model of [Scheer et al., Phys. Rev. B 106, 115418 (2022)] and may provide ideal platforms for the realization of strongly correlated topological phases. 
    more » « less
  5. Abstract Two-dimensional van der Waals materials such as graphene present an opportunity for band structure engineering using custom superlattice potentials. In this study, we demonstrate how self-assemblies of magnetic iron-oxide (Fe3O4) nanospheres stacked on monolayer graphene generate a proximity-induced magnetic superlattice in graphene and modify its band structure. Interactions between the nanospheres and the graphene layer generate superlattice Dirac points in addition to a gapped energy spectrum near the K and K′ valleys, resulting in magnetic confinement of quasiparticles around the nanospheres. This is evidenced by gate-dependent resistance oscillations, observed in our low temperature transport measurements, and confirmed by self-consistent tight binding calculations. Furthermore, we show that an external magnetic field can tune the magnetic superlattice potential created by the nanospheres, and thus the transport characteristics of the system. This technique for magnetic-field-tuned band structure engineering using magnetic nanostructures can be extended to a broader class of 2D van der Waals and topological materials. 
    more » « less