Tunable half-metalicity in substitutionally doped boronitrene A M Ukpong and N Chetty Department of Physics University of Pretoria
Spintronic effects in graphenic systems Spintronics: based on ability to manipulate electronic charge and spin Spontaneous magnetism in carbon-only materials (s and p electrons) Half-metallicity (HM) in open-volume defective boronitrene due to electron injection HM by doping with self-assembled clusters of B, C and N. Is this tunable? Graphene Boronitrene A. M. Ukpong, N Chetty, J. Phys. Condens. Matter 24, 465002 (2012)
Substitutional complexes T. B. Ngwenya, A. M. Ukpong, and N. Chetty, Phys. Rev. B 84, 245425 (2011)
Computational details Spin-polarised/nonmagnetic calculations: VASP Electron-ion interactions: (PAW) XC potential: GGA-PBE KEcutoff = 500 eV ; SCFconvergence <= 10-7 eV Structure relaxations: Fatom <= 0.001 eV/Å Total energy converged wrt k-points: 12×12×1 (h-BN unit cell) = ET (50 atoms) - ET (128 atoms) 48.32 meV C6B+C10N complex
Local structure reconstruction
Local structure reconstruction (d) Local structure reconstruction
Energetics -2.6 (eV) 2.6 S B Zhang and J E Northrup, Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 2339 (1991)
Effects of edge termination Energetic stability Effects of edge termination E (STP) = E[C1B+C3N ] – E[C1N+C3B ] = - 1.423 eVmol-1
Spin polarised electronic charge density
Spin polarised electronic charge density
P = [N(EF) - N(EF)]/(N(EF) + N(EF)) Magnetoelectronic signatures P = [N(EF) - N(EF)]/(N(EF) + N(EF)) Δ = N(EF) - N(EF) > 0 Half-metallicity
Origin of half-metallicity s-orbital DOS p-orbital DOS
Magnetic polarization density
Magnetic exchange and magnetization energy Em in hybrid BCN monolayers. Complexes NC Spin order Em (eV) J (eV) m (µB) B3N HM 0.21 0.42 1.99 N3B HMFM 0.00 C1B+C3N (or C1N+C3B) 4 0.33 0.66 2.00 (1.99) C3B+C3N 6 AFM C3B +C6N (or C6B+C3N) 9 0.72 1.42 3.14(3.04) C6B+C10N (or C6N+C10B) 16 0.90 1.80 3.77(3.33)
Tuning the magnetic moments Stoichiometric Non-stoichiometric
Tuning the half-metallicity Effect of charge injection C1B+C3N complex
Half-metallicity is induced in boronitrene by doping: Summary/Outlook Half-metallicity is induced in boronitrene by doping: (i) Self-assembled clusters of boron or carbon. (ii) Engineering the geometry of the C-clusters (graphene flake) (iii) Hexagonal flake (not half-metallic); triangular (half-metallic) Tunable to HM ferrimagnetism by charge injection (i) Applications in spintronics: SPLED, caloritronics, spin filters, and many more !!! Possible tuning to HM ferrimagnetism by heat* (i) Zero magnetization (Curie point ≥ 1250 K) (ii) Violation of Curie–Weiss law in B3N complex * A. M. Ukpong, and N. Chetty, Phys. Rev. B (July 2012) UNDER REVIEW
University of Pretoria Acknowledgments Naitore Gituma Helpful discussions Prof. Jannie Pretorius UP Computational Cluster Support University of Pretoria Grant No: E2020 (Project No. 5)