A comparison of the magnetic properties of Proton- and Iron-implanted graphite

TL;DR

This study compares how proton and iron ion irradiation affect the magnetic properties of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite, revealing that protons induce ferromagnetism while both can produce paramagnetic effects depending on temperature.

Contribution

It provides a direct comparison of proton and iron ion implantation effects on graphite's magnetic properties, highlighting the unique ferromagnetic induction by protons.

Findings

Protons induce ferromagnetism in graphite.

Both proton and iron irradiation produce paramagnetic effects.

The effects depend on implantation temperature.

Abstract

In this work we have investigated the changes of the magnetic properties of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite samples after irradiation either with $\sim 3 \times 10^{14}$ protons or $ 3.5 \times 10^{13} ... 3.5 \times 10^{14}$ iron ions with energies in the MeV range. Our results show that iron and proton irradiations can produce similar paramagnetic contributions depending on the implantation temperature. However, only protons induce a ferromagnetic effect.