Electrically tunable quantum anomalous Hall effect in 5d transition-metal adatoms on graphene

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that 5d transition-metal adatoms on graphene can exhibit a tunable quantum anomalous Hall effect, with strong magnetic properties and electric field control, advancing spintronic device potential.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid material system with electrically controllable topological transport properties based on first-principles calculations.

Findings

5d transition-metal adatoms on graphene have large magnetic moments.

Strong magneto-electric response allows electric field control of magnetization.

Predicted electrically tunable quantum anomalous Hall effect in these hybrids.

Abstract

The combination of the unique properties of graphene with spin polarization and magnetism for the design of new spintronic concepts and devices has been hampered by the small Coulomb interaction and the tiny spin-orbit coupling of carbon in pristine graphene. Such device concepts would take advantage of the control of the spin degree of freedom utilizing the widely available electric fields in electronics or of topological transport mechanisms such as the conjectured quantum anomalous Hall effect. Here we show, using first-principles methods, that 5d transition-metal (TM) adatoms deposited on graphene display remarkable magnetic properties. All considered TM adatoms possess significant spin moments with colossal magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies as large as 50 meV per TM atom. We reveal that the magneto-electric response of deposited TM atoms is extremely strong and in some cases offers even the possibility to switch the spontaneous magnetization direction by a moderate external electric field. We predict that an electrically tunable quantum anomalous Hall effect can be observed in this type of hybrid materials.