Project Summary
The unusual electronic structure of graphene gives rise not only to interesting transport properties in the layer of hexagonally coordinated carbon atoms itself, but may also be used to create spin-dependent transport (“spin filtering”) in graphene-metal contacts sandwich layers. When grown on ferromagnetic substrates such as the perfectly lattice matched nickel, the overlap of majority and minority charge carriers with the density of states in graphene causes a large spin anisotropy in electron transmission. Similar functionalities may be induced by intercalation of ferro¬magnetic materials between graphene and a SiC substrate.
Graphene, grown as a “nano-mesh” on lattice-mismatched metals such as rhodium and iridium, also provides an exciting template for the growth of size-selected ferromagnetic clusters, whose magnetic properties can then be studied. Since graphene is a truly 2D material, surface-sensitive probes such as Scanning tunneling microscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy are used in the project to elucidate the structural and electronic properties of graphene, in combination with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and magneto-optical Kerr effect studies to characterize the magnetic properties. The experimental studies performed by the partners are complemented by theoretical studies of the interface and cluster systems; this is particularly rewarding since both wave-vector-resolved and real space studies of the electronic and magnetic properties are provided by the experimental projects.
The interaction between graphene and magnetic systems is a largely uncharted territory it is expected that research will provide exciting progress in this field.
For more information see: http://www.spingraph.eu
Participating Researchers:
Professor Karsten Horn (Project Leader)
Max Planck Gesellschaft Fritz Haber Institut, Department of Molecular Physics, Berlin, Germany
Dr. Yuriy Dedkov (Co-Principal Investigator with Prof. Horn)
Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany
Dr. Carlo Carbone (Principal Investigator)
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto di Struttura della Materia, Trieste, Italy
Dr. Mikhail Fonin (Principal Investigator)
Fachbereich Physik, Universität Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
Professor Josef Redinger (Principal Investigator)
Centre for Computational Materials Science and Department for General Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, Austria
Professor Harald Brune (Associated Partner)
Institute of Condensed Matter Physics, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
