Engineering magnetic properties of hexagonal boron nitride - based hybrid nanoarchitectures: WHITEMAG

Programme(s): H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility

Topic(s): MSCA-IF-2019 - Individual Fellowships

Call for proposal: H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

Funding Scheme: MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF

Grant agreement ID: 892725

Project description:

A new spin on the possibilities of a promising two-dimensional material

Two-dimensional hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) has a similar structure as graphene. It is used extensively as an insulator and is known for its high thermal stability, inertness and mechanical robustness. Like graphene, it also has exotic optoelectronic properties and is attracting interest in applications such as field effect transistors and photoelectric devices. To fully exploit the potential of hBN nanostructures, the EU-funded WHITEMAG project is planning to develop methodologies to enable the controlled magnetic functionalisation of hBN at the nanoscale. To do so, it will characterise the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of various hBN-based engineered materials at the atomic level. Tailoring of magnetic properties could spur applications in numerous fields, from spintronics to molecular electronics.

Objective:

2D magnetic materials have attracted enormous interest over the last years because of their potential towards miniaturization of novel low-power and memory storage technologies. Isostructural and isoelectronic to graphene, an atomically-thin layer of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) is electrically insulating, and one of the most prominent 2D materials because of its superior mechanical, thermal and especially chemical properties. Inducing magnetic properties (together with reducing the size of the bandgap) will allow the realization of full potential of hBN nanostructures in functional applications. In this line, the efforts reported to date lack characterization and control of the sample’s properties at the atomic level, which is crucial to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the physical phenomena driving the emergence of magnetic properties.

WHITEMAG aims to create routes for controlled magnetic functionalization of hBN in order to induce and exploit emerging electronic and magnetic properties at the atomic scale. hBN will be precisely modified by exploring novel defect engineering methods to introduce substitutional magnetic atoms, and subsequently by designing hybrid nanoarchitectures that combine hBN with magnetic organic molecules. The structural, electronic and magnetic properties of these systems will be studied by STM/STS, XPS/ARPES, nc-AFM and XMCD, giving a complete picture of the phenomena occurring at the atomistic level. The synthesis and characterization experiments will be addressed based on a surface science approach, involving controlled dosing of molecular and atomic species on well-defined surfaces under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. If successful, the outcomes of this work will push forward the microscopic understanding of magnetic phenomena in low-dimensional systems, and will open new promising perspectives for the implementation of hBN-based nanostructures in future spintronics and molecular electronics applications.