Transition in electronic and magnetic properties of transition metal embedded semimetallic B-graphyne.

Abstract

Spintronics is extremely important in the future development of information technology. Notably, two-dimensional carbon materials with atomically thick and p-electron systems have great potential for application in ultrathin spintronic devices. B-graphyne (B-GY) is a recently proposed two-dimensional carbon allotrope with double Dirac cones. It is a promising nanomaterial for high-speed spintronic devices due to its ultra-high Fermi velocity and thermodynamic stability. We tune the electronic and magnetic properties of B-GY by doping 3d transition metals (TM) (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) based on first-principles calculations. After doping, TM forms strong covalent bonds (Fe, Co, Ni) and ionic bonds (Cr, Mn) with adjacent C atoms. The system of TM-doped B-GY (TM@B-GY) is transformed from a semimetal for B-GY to a metal (Cr, Mn, Fe, Co), but Ni@B-GY is still semimetal. Among them, Co@B-GY is approximately a half-metal. Moreover, TM (except Ni) can induce the magnetism of B-GY to undergo spin splitting. The TM d-orbitals are strongly coupled to the C p-orbitals, which play an important role in inducing magnetism. The results show that the tunable electronic and magnetic properties of TM@B-GY are promising as a high-speed spintronic device. Our research helps advance the study of semimetallic carbon allotropes in the field of spintronics.