CaltechAUTHORS
Published June 5, 2009 | Version public
Journal Article Metadata-only

Theory of Interedge Superexchange in Zigzag Edge Magnetism

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon The University of Texas at Austin
  • 2. ROR icon California Institute of Technology

Abstract

A graphene nanoribbon with zigzag edges has a gapped magnetic ground state with an antiferromagnetic interedge superexchange interaction. We present a theory based on asymptotic properties of the Dirac-model ribbon wave function which predicts W^(-2) and W^(-1) ribbon-width dependencies for the superexchange interaction strength and the charge gap, respectively. We find that, unlike the case of conventional atomic-scale superexchange, opposite spin orientations on opposite edges of the ribbon are favored by both kinetic and interaction energies.

Additional Information

©2009 The American Physical Society. Received 3 December 2008; published 5 June 2009. The authors gratefully acknowledge helpful interactions with R. Bistritzer, J. Hill, H.-H. Lin, N. Sinitsyn, J. Fernández-Rossier, J. J. Palacios, and C.-C. Wang. This work was supported by the Welch Foundation, NRI-SWAN, ARO, DOE, and by the Spanish Ministry of Education through the MEC-Fulbright program.

Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
15494
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20090831-140447449

Funding

Welch Foundation
Semiconductor Research Corporation
Army Research Office
Department of Energy
Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (Spain)
Fulbright Foundation

Dates

Created
2009-09-10
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-08
Created from EPrint's last_modified field