Influence of vacancy defects and 3d transition metal adatoms on the electronic and magnetic properties of graphene

Abstract

Based on the density functional theory (DFT) method, we investigated the geometry stability, electronic and magnetic properties of vacancy-defected graphene with and without the adsorption of transition metal (TM) adatoms (V, Cr, and Mn). The results indicated that the appearance of vacancy, which broke the π-band, induced a magnetic property due to the unpaired electrons. After adsorbing the TM atoms, the electronic and magnetic properties were interestingly modified by the impurity states and the spin-polarized electrons of TM atoms. Moreover, the projected density of states (PDOS) results suggested that the magnetism of systems was mainly dominated by the 2p orbitals of C atoms around the vacancy and the 3d orbital of the TM adatoms.