Tunable Kondo effect in graphene with defects

Abstract

Graphene is a model system for the study of electrons confined to a strictly two-dimensional layer1 and a large number of electronic phenomena have been demonstrated in graphene, from the fractional2, 3 quantum Hall effect to superconductivity4. However, the coupling of conduction electrons to local magnetic moments5, 6, a central problem of condensed matter physics, has not been realized in graphene, and, given carbon's lack of d or f electrons, magnetism in graphene would seem unlikely. Nonetheless, magnetism in graphitic carbon in the absence of transition-metal elements has been reported7-10, with explanations ranging from lattice defects11 to edge structures12, 13 to negative curvature regions of the graphene sheet14. Recent experiments suggest that correlated defects in highly-ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) induced by proton irradiation9 or native to grain boundaries7, can give rise to ferromagnetism. Here we show that point defects (vacancies) in graphene15 are local moments which interact strongly with the conduction electrons through the Kondo effect6, 16-18 providing strong evidence that defects in graphene are indeed magnetic. The Kondo temperature TK is tunable with carrier density from 30-90 K; the high TK is a direct consequence of strong coupling of defects to conduction electrons in a Dirac material18. The results indicate that defect engineering in graphene could be used to generate and control carrier-mediated magnetism, and realize all-carbon spintronic devices. Furthermore, graphene should be an ideal system in which to probe Kondo physics in a widely tunable electron system.