What is it about?
This paper proves a theorem which says that the electrons which live at a particular boundary of a sheet of graphene will align their spins in the same direction so that, in unison, they behave like a magnet.
Featured Image
Photo by Josie Weiss on Unsplash
Why is it important?
If such a coherent assembly of aligned spins can be manipulated, it can be used to make some very interesting spintronic devices. The existence or non-existence of this state of matter is therefore an important issue for electronic device technology.
Perspectives
The spin alignment has long been predicted by theories, the one in this paper being the last word on such predictions. However, it has not been detected in experiments yet. Most important is to answer the question as to whether or not it is there. One could say that the ball is in the experimental material scientists' court.
Gordon Semenoff
University of British Columbia
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Boundary ferromagnetism in zigzag edged graphene, Journal of Mathematical Physics, July 2023, American Institute of Physics,
DOI: 10.1063/5.0135165.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
