Spin Polarization and Flat Bands in Eu-Doped Nanoporous and Twisted Bilayer Graphenes

Micromachines (Basel). 2023 Sep 30;14(10):1889. doi: 10.3390/mi14101889.

Abstract

Advanced two-dimensional spin-polarized heterostructures based on twisted (TBG) and nanoporous (NPBG) bilayer graphenes doped with Eu ions were theoretically proposed and studied using Periodic Boundary Conditions Density Functional theory electronic structure calculations. The significant polarization of the electronic states at the Fermi level was discovered for both Eu/NPBG(AA) and Eu/TBG lattices. Eu ions' chemi- and physisorption to both graphenes may lead to structural deformations, drop of symmetry of low-dimensional lattices, interlayer fusion, and mutual slides of TBG graphene fragments. The frontier bands in the valence region at the vicinity of the Fermi level of both spin-polarized 2D Eu/NPBG(AA) and Eu/TBG lattices clearly demonstrate flat dispersion laws caused by localized electronic states formed by TBG Moiré patterns, which could lead to strong electron correlations and the formation of exotic quantum phases.

Keywords: DFT; bilayer graphene; flat bands; nanoporous bilayer graphene; spin polarization; twisted bilayer graphene.