Magnetism in Graphene Systems

TL;DR

This review discusses the magnetic properties and electronic structures of various graphene systems, highlighting their potential for spintronics and how external stimuli can modify their magnetic behavior.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of magnetic behaviors in graphene systems and discusses methods to control their magnetic states for spintronic applications.

Findings

Magnetism in graphene arises mainly from localized and edge states.

External electric fields and chemical modifications can induce half-metallicity.

Graphene nanoribbons can be engineered as perfect spin filters.

Abstract

Graphene has attracted a great interest in material science due to its novel electronic structrues. Recently, magnetism discovered in graphene based systems opens the possibility of their spintronics application. This paper provides a comprehensive review on the magnetic behaviors and electronic structures of graphene systems, including 2-dimensional graphene, 1-dimensional graphene nanoribbons, and 0-dimensional graphene nanoclusters. Theoretical research suggests that such metal-free magnetism mainly comes from the localized states or edges states. By applying external electric field, or by chemical modification, we can turn the zigzag nanoribbon systems to half metal, thus obtain a perfect spin filter.