A stable path to ferromagnetic hydrogenated graphene growth

TL;DR

This paper presents a practical method to stabilize half-hydrogenated graphene (graphone) using h-BN substrates, enabling its potential use in spintronics due to its half-metallic properties demonstrated through first-principles calculations.

Contribution

The study introduces a novel stabilization technique for graphone via h-BN substrates, facilitating its integration into spintronic devices.

Findings

h-BN substrates induce dipole moments that stabilize hydrogen on graphene

Graphone exhibits half-metallic behavior in heterostructures

Potential applications in spin valves and spintronics devices

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a practical way to stabilize half-hydrogenated graphene (graphone). We show that the dipole moments induced by an hexagonal-boron nitride (h-BN) substrate on graphene stabilize the hydrogen atoms on one sublattice of the graphene layer and suppress the migration of the absorbed hydrogen atoms. Based upon first principle spin polarized density of states (DOS) calculations, we show that the half hydrogenated graphene (graphone) obtained in different graphene-h-BN heterostructures exhibits a half metallic state. We propose to use this new exotic material for spin valve and other spintronics devices and applications.