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Atomic-scale magnetism of cobalt-intercalated graphene

Régis Decker, Jens Brede, Nicolae Atodiresei, Vasile Caciuc, Stefan Blügel, and Roland Wiesendanger
Phys. Rev. B 87, 041403(R) – Published 7 January 2013
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Abstract

Using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory, we have studied the structural and magnetic properties of cobalt-intercalated graphene on Ir(111). The cobalt forms monolayer islands being pseudomorphic with the Ir(111) beneath the graphene. The strong bonding between graphene and cobalt leads to a high corrugation within the Moiré pattern which arises due to the lattice mismatch between the graphene and the Co on Ir(111). The intercalation regions exhibit an out-of-plane easy axis with an extremely high switching field, which surpasses the significant values reported for uncovered cobalt islands on Ir(111). Within the Moiré unit cell of the intercalation regions, we observe a site-dependent variation of the local effective spin polarization. State-of-the-art first-principles calculations show that the origin of this variation is a site-dependent magnetization of the graphene: At top sites the graphene is coupled ferromagnetically to the cobalt underneath, while it is antiferromagnetically coupled at fcc and hcp sites.

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  • Received 4 July 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.041403

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Régis Decker1, Jens Brede1,*, Nicolae Atodiresei2,†, Vasile Caciuc2, Stefan Blügel2, and Roland Wiesendanger1

  • 1Institute of Applied Physics, University of Hamburg, Jungiusstrasse 11, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany
  • 2Peter Grünberg Institut and Institute for Advanced Simulation, Forschungzentrum Jülich, D-52425 Jülich, Germany

  • *jbrede@physnet.uni-hamburg.de
  • n.atodiresei@fz-juelich.de

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Issue

Vol. 87, Iss. 4 — 15 January 2013

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