Proximity-induced ferromagnetism in graphene revealed by anomalous Hall effect

Abstract

We demonstrate the anomalous Hall effect (AHE) in single-layer graphene exchange-coupled to an atomically flat yttrium iron garnet (YIG) ferromagnetic thin film. The anomalous Hall conductance has magnitude of ~0.09(2e2/h) at low temperatures and is measurable up to ~ 300 K. Our observations indicate not only proximity-induced ferromagnetism in graphene/YIG with large exchange interaction, but also enhanced spin-orbit coupling which is believed to be inherently weak in ideal graphene. The proximity-induced ferromagnetic order in graphene can lead to novel transport phenomena such as the quantized AHE which are potentially useful for spintronics.