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Organic materials

Graphene gets molecules into order

Nature Physics volume 9, pages 321–322 (2013)Cite this article

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Small metal-free organic molecules on an epitaxial graphene monolayer are shown to receive a local magnetic moment from the substrate. This magnetic moment survives when many molecules combine to form a layer, with some indication of long-range ferromagnetic order.

Most magnets as we know them in daily life contain iron — which is the reason for the name 'ferromagnetism'. The quantum-mechanical exchange interaction spontaneously aligns the local magnetic moments of the atoms to form a stable arrangement with macroscopic magnetic properties. In addition to iron, only the two transition metals cobalt and nickel show a considerable ferromagnetism at room temperature. A few other elements, in particular rare-earths, are magnetic at much lower temperatures.

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Figure 1: The formation of ferromagnetism in TCNQ molecules on graphene/Ru(0001).

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  1. Friedrich Reinert is at the Physikalisches Institut, Experimentelle Physik VII, Universität Würzburg, Am Hubland, D-97074 Würzburg, Germany,

    Friedrich Reinert

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  1. Friedrich Reinert
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Correspondence to Friedrich Reinert.

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Reinert, F. Graphene gets molecules into order. Nature Phys 9, 321–322 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2643

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