Nonmagnetic-Defect-Induced Magnetism in Graphene

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that nonmagnetic defects in graphene, like vacancies or chemisorption, can induce localized short-range magnetic order due to impurity potentials, revealing defect-induced magnetism.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical model showing how nonmagnetic defects induce magnetic order in graphene, a novel insight into defect-related magnetism in 2D materials.

Findings

Nonmagnetic defects induce antiferromagnetic order in graphene.

Impurity potential strength influences magnetic ordering.

Short-range magnetic order appears around defects in the Hubbard model.

Abstract

It is shown that a strong impurity potential induces short-range antiferromagnetic (ferrimagnetic) order around itself in a Hubbard model on a half-filled honeycomb lattice. This implies that short-range magnetic order is induced in monolayer graphene by a nonmagnetic defect such as a vacancy with full hydrogen termination or a chemisorption defect.