Materials design of half-metallic graphene and graphene nanoribbons

Authors

• Menghao Wu, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Xiaojun Wu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Yi Gao, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
• Xiao Cheng Zeng, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2009

Comments

Published in APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS 94, 2009. Copyright © 2009 American Institute of Physics.

Abstract

Through patterned chemical modification, we show that both graphene sheets and zigzag-edged graphene nanoribbons (ZGNRs) can be converted to half-metals as long as the unmodified carbon strip (or width of ZGNRs) is sufficiently wide. Periodically functionalized graphene can mimic electronic behavior of edge-modified ZGNRs as the edge-modified zigzag carbon chains effectively divide a graphene sheet into a series of identical ZGNRs.