Potential-tuned magnetic switches and half-metallicity transition in zigzag graphene nanoribbons

Abstract

Realizing controllable room-temperature ferromagnetism in carbon-based materials is one of recent prospects. The magnetism in graphene nanostructures reported previously is mostly localized by breaking the local sublattice imbalance. Here, we predict a robustly potential-tuned ferromagnetic domain lying between the inter-chain carbon atoms inside the zigzag graphene nanoribbons. We show that the effective zigzag edges provide the strong correlation background through narrowing the band width, while the internal Van Hove filling (VHF) provides the strong ferromagnetic background inherited from the bulk. The induced ferromagnetism exhibit interesting switching effect when the nominal VHF crosses the intra- and inter-chain region by tuning the potential drops. We further observe a robust half-metallicity transition from one spin channel to another within the same magnetic phase. These novel properties provide promising ways to manipulate the spin degree of freedom in graphene nanostructures.