Physicists Produce the First Two-Dimensional Ferrimagnetism in Graphene
Researchers from St. Petersburg College and their international associates have created the globe’s first two-dimensional ferromagnetism in graphene. The use of the obtained magnetic state of graphene can become the basis of a current method to electronics, increasing its energy efficiency and speed when establishing tools utilizing alternative technologies without the use of silicon.
Graphene, a two-dimensional change of carbon, is the lightest and toughest of all two-dimensional products available today and is also highly conductive. In 2018, researchers from St. Petersburg College, together with their associates from Tomsk State University and German and Spanish researchers, were the first in the world to change graphene and provide it the properties of cobalt and gold– magnetism and spin-orbit interaction (between the moving electron in graphene and its own magnetic moment). When interacting with cobalt and gold, graphene not only retains its unique attributes but likewise partially takes on the properties of these metals.
As part of the new work, the researchers synthesized a system with a ferrimagnetic state of graphene. It is a unique state in which the substance has magnetization without an external magnetic field. The physicists used a similar substratum made from a thin layer of cobalt and also an alloy of gold on its surface.
Displacement loops under graphene
During surface alloying, dislocation loops were developed under graphene. These loops are triangular areas with a lower thickness of cobalt atoms to which the gold atoms have moved closer. Until now, it was known that single-layer graphene might only be completely magnetized uniformly.
Nevertheless, research by the scientists from St. Petersburg College have shown that it is feasible to control the magnetization of the atoms of individual sublattices through selective interaction with the structural defects of the substrate.
“This is a significant discovery, as all electronic tools use electric charges and involve heat generation when current flows. Our study will eventually permit information to be transmitted in the way of spin currents. This is a recent generation of electronics, a fundamentally different logic, and a current method to technology development that decreases power intake as well as raises the speed of information transfer,” clarified Artem Rybkin, principal investigator of the research, Leading Study Partner in the Laboratory of Electronic and Spin Structure of Nanosystems at St. Petersburg College.
The 2nd important characteristic of the graphene synthesized by the physicists from St. Petersburg College is the solid spin-orbit interaction. In this structure, the strengthening of this interaction is explained by the existence of gold atoms under graphene. At a specific ratio of the magnetic and spin-orbit interaction parameters, it is possible to move from the trivial, i.e., familiar, state of graphene to a novel, topological one.
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