Magnetic response of zigzag nanoribbons under electric fields

Electric-field-induced spin spiral state in bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons

We investigated the emergence of spin spiral ground state induced by the electric field in the bilayer zigzag graphene nanoribbons for the ferromagnetic edge states. To do that, we employed the generalized Bloch theorem to create flat spiral alignments for all the magnetic moments of carbon atoms at the edges within a constraint scheme approach. While the small ribbon width can preserve the ferromagnetic ground state, the large one shows the spiral ground state starting from a certain value of the electric field. We also pointed out that the spiral ground state is caused by the reduction of spin stiffness. In this case, the energy scale exhibits a subtle nature that can only be considered at the low temperature. For the last discussion, we also revealed that the spin spiral ground state appears more rapidly when the thickness increases. Therefore, we justify that the large ribbon width and large thickness can generate many spiral states induced by the electric field.

Applied electric field on zigzag graphene nanoribbons: reduction of spin stiffness and appearance of spiral spin density waves

We investigated the reduction of the spin stiffness and the appearance of the spiral spin density waves when the electric field is applied on the zigzag graphene nanoribbons for the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic edge states. For that purpose, we exploited the generalized Bloch theorem combined with a constraint method to keep the direction of the magnetic moment of the carbon atom at the edges. We found that the ground state of ferromagnetic configuration is unstable and leads to the spiral ground state while the ground state of the antiferromagnetic configuration is robust. We also showed that the spin stiffness in the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic configurations reduces as the electric field increases. Thus, we justified that not only the spin stiffness but also the ground state of the zigzag graphene nanoribbons can be controlled by the electric field.

Interface effects in hybrid hBN-graphene nanoribbons

We analyze the electronic properties of a hybrid graphene-BN nanoribbon system, using a Hubbard model Hamiltonian within a mean field approximation. Due to the different electronegativities of the boron and nitrogen atoms, an electric field is induced across the zigzag graphene strip, breaking the spin degeneracy of the electronic band structure. Optimal tight-binding parameters are found from first-principles calculations. Edge potentials are proposed as corrections for the on-site energies, modeling the BN-graphene nanoribbon interfaces. We show that half-metallic responses in the hybrid systems may be driven with the help of an external electric field. We also study the role of defects across the graphene nanoribbon and at the h-BN/graphene interface regions. Modulations on the spin-dependent gaps may be achieved depending on the nature and position of the defect, constituting a way towards spin-gap engineering by means of spatial doping.

Effects of edge magnetism on the Kohn anomalies of zigzag graphene nanoribbons

The effects of edge magnetism on the Kohn anomaly (KA) of the G-band phonons of zigzag graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) are studied using a combination of the tight-binding and mean-field Hubbard models. We show that the opening of an energy gap, induced by magnetic ordering, significantly changes the KA effects, particularly for narrow ribbons in which the gap is larger than the phonon energy. Therefore, the G-band phonon frequency and lifetime are altered for a magnetically-ordered edge state with respect to an unpolarized edge state. The effects of temperature, ZGNR width, doping and transverse electric fields are systematically investigated. We propose using this effect to probe the magnetic order of edge states in graphene nanoribbons using Raman spectroscopy.