Sumanta Bhandary

Improved gas sensing activity in structurally defected bilayer graphene

Graphene is a two-dimensional material with a capability of gas sensing, which is here shown to be drastically improved by inducing gentle disorder in the lattice. We report that by using a focused ion beam technique, controlled disorder can be introduced into the graphene structure through Ga(+) ion irradiation. This disorder leads to an increase in the electrical response of graphene to NO(2) gas molecules by a factor of three in an ambient environment (air). Ab initio density functional calculations indicate that NO(2) molecules bind strongly to Stone-Wales defects, where they modify electronic states close to the Fermi level, which in turn influence the transport properties. The demonstrated gas sensor, utilizing structurally defected graphene, shows faster response, higher conductivity changes and thus higher sensitivity to NO(2) as compared to pristine graphene.

Graphene as a reversible spin manipulator of molecular magnets.

One of the primary objectives in molecular nanospintronics is to manipulate the spin states of organic molecules with a d-electron center, by suitable external means. In this Letter, we demonstrate by first principles density functional calculations, as well as second order perturbation theory, that a strain induced change of the spin state, from S=1→S=2, takes place for an iron porphyrin (FeP) molecule deposited at a divacancy site in a graphene lattice. The process is reversible in the sense that the application of tensile or compressive strains in the graphene lattice can stabilize FeP in different spin states, each with a unique saturation moment and easy axis orientation. The effect is brought about by a change in Fe-N bond length in FeP, which influences the molecular level diagram as well as the interaction between the C atoms of the graphene layer and the molecular orbitals of FeP.

Complex edge effects in zigzag graphene nanoribbons due to hydrogen loading

Graphene is foreseen to be the basis of future electronics owing to its ultra thin structure, extremely high charge carrier mobility, high thermal conductivity etc., which are expected to overcome the size limitation and heat dissipation problem in silicon based transistors. But these great prospects are hindered by the metallic nature of pristine graphene even at charge neutrality point, which allows to flow current even when a transistor is switched off. A part of the thesis is dedicated to invoke electronic band gaps in graphene to overcome this problem. The concept of quantum confinement has been employed to tune the band gaps in graphene by dimensional confinement along with the functionalization of the edges of these confined nanostructures. Thermodynamic stability of the functionalized zigzag edges with hydrogen, fluorine and reconstructed edges has been presented in the thesis. Keeping an eye towards the same goal of band gap opening, a different route has been considered by admixing insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with semimetal graphene. The idea has been implemented in two dimensional h-BN-graphene composites and three dimensional stacked heterostructures. The study reveals the possibility of tuning band gaps by controlling the admixture. Occurrence of defects in graphene has significant effect on its electronic properties. By random insertion of defects, amorphous graphene is studied, revealing a semi-metal to a metal transition.The field of molecular electronics and spintronics aims towards device realization at the molecular scale. In this thesis, different aspects of magnetic bistability in organometallic molecules have been explored in order to design practical spintronics devices. Manipulation of spin states in organometallic molecules, specifically metal porphyrin molecules, is achieved by controlling surface–molecule interaction. It has been shown that by strain engineering in defected graphene, the magnetic state of adsorbed molecules can be changed. The spin crossover between different spin states can also be achieved by chemisorption on magnetic surfaces. A significant part of the thesis demonstrates that the surface-molecule interaction not only changes the spin state of the molecule, but allows to manipulate magnetic anisotropies and spin dipole moments via modified ligand fields. Finally, in collaboration with experimentalists, a practical realization of switching surface–molecule magnetic interactions by external magnetic fields is demonstrated.

Disorder-induced metallicity in amorphous graphene

Graphene is foreseen to be the basis of future electronics owing to its ultra thin structure, extremely high charge carrier mobility, high thermal conductivity etc., which are expected to overcome the size limitation and heat dissipation problem in silicon based transistors. But these great prospects are hindered by the metallic nature of pristine graphene even at charge neutrality point, which allows to flow current even when a transistor is switched off. A part of the thesis is dedicated to invoke electronic band gaps in graphene to overcome this problem. The concept of quantum confinement has been employed to tune the band gaps in graphene by dimensional confinement along with the functionalization of the edges of these confined nanostructures. Thermodynamic stability of the functionalized zigzag edges with hydrogen, fluorine and reconstructed edges has been presented in the thesis. Keeping an eye towards the same goal of band gap opening, a different route has been considered by admixing insulating hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) with semimetal graphene. The idea has been implemented in two dimensional h-BN-graphene composites and three dimensional stacked heterostructures. The study reveals the possibility of tuning band gaps by controlling the admixture. Occurrence of defects in graphene has significant effect on its electronic properties. By random insertion of defects, amorphous graphene is studied, revealing a semi-metal to a metal transition.The field of molecular electronics and spintronics aims towards device realization at the molecular scale. In this thesis, different aspects of magnetic bistability in organometallic molecules have been explored in order to design practical spintronics devices. Manipulation of spin states in organometallic molecules, specifically metal porphyrin molecules, is achieved by controlling surface–molecule interaction. It has been shown that by strain engineering in defected graphene, the magnetic state of adsorbed molecules can be changed. The spin crossover between different spin states can also be achieved by chemisorption on magnetic surfaces. A significant part of the thesis demonstrates that the surface-molecule interaction not only changes the spin state of the molecule, but allows to manipulate magnetic anisotropies and spin dipole moments via modified ligand fields. Finally, in collaboration with experimentalists, a practical realization of switching surface–molecule magnetic interactions by external magnetic fields is demonstrated.

Defect controlled magnetism in FeP/graphene/Ni(111)

Spin switching of organometallic complexes by ferromagnetic surfaces is an important topic in the area of molecular nanospintronics. Moreover, graphene has been shown as a 2D surface for physisorption of molecular magnets and strain engineering on graphene can tune the spin state of an iron porphyrin (FeP) molecule from S = 1 to S = 2. Our ab initio density functional calculations suggest that a pristine graphene layer placed between a Ni(111) surface and FeP yields an extremely weak exchange interaction between FeP and Ni whereas the introduction of defects in graphene shows a variety of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions. Moreover, these defects control the easy axes of magnetization, strengths of magnetic anisotropy energies and spin-dipolar contributions. Our study suggests a new way of manipulating molecular magnetism by defects in graphene and hence has the potential to be explored in designing spin qubits to realize logic operations in molecular nanospintronics.

Iron porphyrin molecules on Cu(001): Influence of adlayers and ligands on the magnetic properties

The structural and magnetic properties of Fe octaethylporphyrin molecules on Cu(001) have been investigated by means of density functional theory (DFT) methods and x-ray absorption spectroscopy. The molecules have been adsorbed on the bare metal surface and on an oxygen-covered surface, which shows a root 2 x 2 root 2R45 degrees reconstruction. In order to allow for a direct comparison between magnetic moments obtained from sum-rule analysis and DFT, we calculate the spin dipolar term 7T (theta), which is also important in view of the magnetic anisotropy of the molecule. The measured x-ray magnetic circular dichroism shows a strong dependence on the photon incidence angle, which we could relate to a huge value of 7T (theta), e. g., on Cu(001), 7T (theta) amounts to -2.07 mu(B) for normal incidence leading to a reduction of the effective spin moment (m(s) + 7T (theta)). Calculations have also been performed to study the influence of possible ligands such as Cl and O atoms on the magnetic properties of the molecule and the interaction between molecule and surface because the experimental spectra display a clear dependence on the ligand, which is used to stabilize the molecule in the gas phase. Both types of ligands weaken the hybridization between surface and porphyrin molecule and change the magnetic spin state of the molecule, but the changes in the x-ray absorption are clearly related to residual Cl ligands.

The dipole moment of the spin density as a local indicator for phase transitions.

The intra-atomic magnetic dipole moment - frequently called 〈Tz〉 term - plays an important role in the determination of spin magnetic moments by x-ray absorption spectroscopy for systems with nonspherical spin density distributions. In this work, we present the dipole moment as a sensitive monitor to changes in the electronic structure in the vicinity of a phase transiton. In particular, we studied the dipole moment at the Fe2+ and Fe3+ sites of magnetite as an indicator for the Verwey transition by a combination of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism and density functional theory. Our experimental results prove that there exists a local change in the electronic structure at temperatures above the Verwey transition correlated to the known spin reorientation. Furthermore, it is shown that measurement of the dipole moment is a powerful tool to observe this transition in small magnetite nanoparticles for which it is usually screened by blocking effects in classical magnetometry.

Fen (n=1–6) clusters chemisorbed on vacancy defects in graphene : Stability, spin-dipole moment, and magnetic anisotropy

In this work, we have studied the chemical and magnetic interactions of Fen (n = 1–6) clusters with vacancy defects (monovacancy to correlated vacancies with six missing C atoms) in a graphene shee ...

Correlated electron behavior of metal-organic molecules : Insights from density functional theory combined with many-body effects using exact diagonalization

A proper theoretical description of the electronic structure of the 3d orbitals in the metal centers of functional metalorganics is a challenging problem. We apply density functional theory and an exact diagonalization method in a many-body approach to study the ground-state electronic configuration of an iron porphyrin (FeP) molecule. Our study reveals that the consideration of multiple Slater determinants is important, and FeP is a potential candidate for realizing a spin crossover due to a subtle balance of crystal-field effects, on-site Coulomb repulsion, and hybridization between the Fe-d orbitals and ligand N-p states. The mechanism of switching between two close-lying electronic configurations of Fe-d orbitals is shown. We discuss the generality of the suggested approach and the possibility to properly describe the electronic structure and related low-energy physics of the whole class of correlated metal-centered organometallic molecules.

Graphene-Boron Nitride Composite: A Material with Advanced Functionalities

The discovery of two dimensional materials is extremely exciting due to their unique properties, resulting from the lowering of dimensionality. Physics in 2D is quite rich (e.g., high temperature superconductivity, fractional quantum Hall effect etc.) and is different from its other dimensional counterparts. A 2Dmaterial acts as the bridge between bulk 3D systems and 0D quantum dots or 1D chain materials. This can well be the building block for materials with other dimensions. The discovery of graphene, the 2D allotrope of carbon by Geim and Novoselov [1] made an enormous sensation owing to a plethora of exciting properties. They were awarded the Nobel prize in Physics in 2010. Graphene, an atomically thick C layer, has broken the jinx of impossibility of the formation of a 2D structure at a finite temperature, as argued by Landau et al.[2, 3]. The argument that a 2D material is thermodynamically unstable due to the out-of-plane thermal distortion, which is comparable to its bond length, was proven invalid with this discovery. One of the recent interests is to understand this apparent discrepancy by considering rippled structures of graphene at finite temperatures.