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Strong Interplay between the Electron Spin Lifetime in Chemically Synthesized Graphene Multilayers and Surface‐Bound Oxygen
Author(s) -
Náfrádi Bálint,
Choucair Mohammad,
Southon Peter D.,
Kepert Cameron J.,
Forró László
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.201404309
Subject(s) - graphene , oxygen , spin (aerodynamics) , materials science , electron , chemical physics , surface (topology) , nanotechnology , condensed matter physics , chemical engineering , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , geometry , mathematics , engineering
The electron spin lifetime in an assembly of chemically synthesized graphene sheets was found to be extremely sensitive to oxygen. Introducing small concentrations of physisorbed O 2 onto the graphene surface reduced the exceptionally long 140 ns electron spin lifetime by an order of magnitude. This effect was completely reversible: Removing the O 2 by using a dynamic vacuum restored the spin lifetime. The presence of covalently bound oxygen also decreased the electron spin lifetime in graphene, although to a far lesser extent compared to physisorbed O 2 . The conduction electrons in graphene were found to play a significant role by counter‐balancing the spin depolarization caused by oxygen molecules. Our results highlight the importance of chemical environment control and device packing in practical graphene‐based spintronic applications.