TY - JOUR
T1 - Detecting the spin-polarization of edge states in graphene nanoribbons
AU - Brede, Jens
AU - Merino-Díez, Nestor
AU - Berdonces-Layunta, Alejandro
AU - Sanz, Sofía
AU - Domínguez-Celorrio, Amelia
AU - Lobo-Checa, Jorge
AU - Vilas-Varela, Manuel
AU - Peña, Diego
AU - Frederiksen, Thomas
AU - Pascual, José I.
AU - de Oteyza, Dimas G.
AU - Serrate, David
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation MICIN through grant nos. PID2019-107338RB-C64 (D.S. and J.L.C.), PID2019-107338RB-C61 (J.I.P.), PID2019-107338RB-C62 (D.P.), PID2019-107338RB-C63 (D.G.O.), PID2020-115406GB-I00 (T.F.) funded by AEI/10.13039/501100011033; grant no. PCI2019-111933-2; and red temática RED2018-102833-T. This work was also supported by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the program Interreg V-A España-Francia-Andorra (grant no. EFA194/16 TNSI), the European Union (EU) H2020 program through the FET-Open project SPRING (Grant Agreement No. 863098, J.I.P. and T.F.) and the NextGeneration/PRTR grant no. TED2021-132388B-C43 (D.G.O.), the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program CEX2020-001038-M (J.L.P.), the Aragon Government (E13-20R (D.S.) and E12-20R (J.L.C.)), the Programa Red Guipuzcoana de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación 2021 (Grant No. 2021-CIEN-000069-01, Gipuzkoa Next, J.I.P.), the Basque Department of Education (PRE-2021-2-0190 and PIBA-2020-1-0014, T.F.), and the Xunta de Galicia (Centro de Investigación accreditation 2019-2022, ED431G2019/03, D.P.)
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, Springer Nature Limited.
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Low dimensional carbon-based materials can show intrinsic magnetism associated to p-electrons in open-shell π-conjugated systems. Chemical design provides atomically precise control of the π-electron cloud, which makes them promising for nanoscale magnetic devices. However, direct verification of their spatially resolved spin-moment remains elusive. Here, we report the spin-polarization of chiral graphene nanoribbons (one-dimensional strips of graphene with alternating zig-zag and arm-chair boundaries), obtained by means of spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy. We extract the energy-dependent spin-moment distribution of spatially extended edge states with π-orbital character, thus beyond localized magnetic moments at radical or defective carbon sites. Guided by mean-field Hubbard calculations, we demonstrate that electron correlations are responsible for the spin-splitting of the electronic structure. Our versatile platform utilizes a ferromagnetic substrate that stabilizes the organic magnetic moments against thermal and quantum fluctuations, while being fully compatible with on-surface synthesis of the rapidly growing class of nanographenes.
AB - Low dimensional carbon-based materials can show intrinsic magnetism associated to p-electrons in open-shell π-conjugated systems. Chemical design provides atomically precise control of the π-electron cloud, which makes them promising for nanoscale magnetic devices. However, direct verification of their spatially resolved spin-moment remains elusive. Here, we report the spin-polarization of chiral graphene nanoribbons (one-dimensional strips of graphene with alternating zig-zag and arm-chair boundaries), obtained by means of spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy. We extract the energy-dependent spin-moment distribution of spatially extended edge states with π-orbital character, thus beyond localized magnetic moments at radical or defective carbon sites. Guided by mean-field Hubbard calculations, we demonstrate that electron correlations are responsible for the spin-splitting of the electronic structure. Our versatile platform utilizes a ferromagnetic substrate that stabilizes the organic magnetic moments against thermal and quantum fluctuations, while being fully compatible with on-surface synthesis of the rapidly growing class of nanographenes.
KW - Nanoscale magnetic devices
KW - Spin-polarization
KW - spin-polarized scanning tunnelling microscopy
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85174579210
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-42436-7
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-42436-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 37865684
AN - SCOPUS:85174579210
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 6677
ER -