Divacancy-induced Ferromagnetism in Graphene Nanoribbons

Abstract

Zigzag graphene nanoribb ons have spin-polarized edges, anti-ferromagnetically coupled in the ground state with total spin zero. Customarily, these ribbons are made ferromagnetic by producing an imbalance between the two sublattices. Here we show that zigzag ribbons can be ferromagnetic due to the presence of reconstructed divacancies near one edge. This effect takes place despite the divacancies are produced by removing two atoms from opposite sublattices, being balanced before reconstruction to 5-8-5 defects. We demonstrate that there is a strong interaction between the defect-localized and edge bands which mix and split away from the Fermi level. This splitting is asymmetric, yielding a net edge spin-polarization. Therefore, the formation of reconstructed divacancies close to the edges of the nanoribbons can be a practical way to make them partially ferromagnetic.