Impurity States in Graphene

TL;DR

This paper investigates how defects and impurities affect the electronic and magnetic properties of graphene, providing detailed LDOS calculations accessible via STM and exploring spin polarization effects at magnetic impurities.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive analysis of impurity effects on graphene's electronic structure, including magnetic interactions, with results applicable to STM experiments.

Findings

Impurity states significantly alter local electronic properties.

Magnetic impurities induce strongly spin-polarized states.

Results are directly observable through STM measurements.

Abstract

Defects in graphene are of crucial importance for its electronic and magnetic properties. Here impurity effects on the electronic structure of surrounding carbon atoms are considered and the distribution of the local densities of states (LDOS) is calculated. As the full range from near field to the asymptotic regime is covered, our results are directly accessible by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). We also include exchange scattering at magnetic impurities and eludicate how strongly spin polarized impurity states arise.