Evidence for Spin-Flip Scattering and Local Moments in Dilute Fluorinated Graphene

Authors

Xia Hong, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
K. Zou, The Pennsylvania State University
B. Wang, The Pennsylvania State University
S.-H. Cheng, The Pennsylvania State University
J. Zhu, The Pennsylvania State UniversityFollow

Date of this Version

6-1-2012

Citation

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 108, 226602 (2012). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.226602

Comments

Copyright (c) 2012 American Physical Society. Used by permission.

Abstract

The issue of whether local magnetic moments can be formed by introducing adatoms into graphene is of intense research interest because it opens the window to fundamental studies of magnetism in graphene, as well as of its potential spintronics applications. To investigate this question, we measure, by exploiting the well-established weak localization physics, the phase coherence length L in dilute fluorinated graphene. L reveals an unusual saturation below 10 K, which cannot be explained by nonmagnetic origins. The corresponding phase-breaking rate increases with decreasing carrier density and increases with increasing fluorine density. These results provide strong evidence for spin-flip scattering and point to the existence of an adatom-induced local magnetic moment in fluorinated graphene. Our results will stimulate further investigations of magnetism and spintronics applications in adatom-engineered graphene.