Stable ferromagnetism and doping induced half-metallicity in asymmetric graphene nanoribbons

TL;DR

This paper introduces asymmetric graphene nanoribbons with intrinsic ferromagnetism and demonstrates that doping with boron or nitrogen can induce half-metallicity, making them promising for spintronic devices.

Contribution

It proposes a new class of asymmetric graphene nanoribbons with intrinsic ferromagnetism and tunable electronic properties via doping, advancing potential spintronic applications.

Findings

Asymmetric nanoribbons exhibit strong intrinsic ferromagnetism.

Doping with boron or nitrogen induces half-metallicity.

Effective doping sites are identified from band structure analysis.

Abstract

We propose a class of graphene nanoribbons showing strong intrinsic ferromagnetic behavior due to their asymmetry. Such ribbons are based on a zig-zag edged backbone surmounted by a periodic, triangular notched region of variable size. The electronic properties as a function of the topology are investigated. Interestingly, substitutional doping by boron or nitrogen induces half-metallicity. The most effective doping sites can be inferred from the band structure. Given the present rapid development of bottom-up strategies for the synthesis of atomically precise carbon nanostructures the proposed class of nanoribbons emerges as a real candidate for spintronic applications at ambient temperature.