Robust correlated magnetic moments in end-modified graphene nanoribbons

Abstract

We conduct a theoretical examination of the electronic and magnetic characteristics of end-modified 7-atom wide armchair graphene nanoribbons (AGNRs). Our investigation is performed within the framework of a single-band Hubbard model, beyond a mean-field approximation. First, we carry out a comprehensive comparison of various approaches for accommodating di-hydrogenation configurations at the AGNR ends. We demonstrate that the application of an on-site potential to the modified carbon atom, coupled with the addition of an electron, replicates phenomena such as the experimentally observed reduction of the bulk-states (BS) gap. These results for the density of states (DOS) and electronic densities align closely with those obtained through a method explicitly designed to account for the orbital properties of hydrogen atoms. Furthermore, our study enables a clear differentiation between magnetic moments already described in a mean-field (MF) approach, which are spatially confined to the same sites as the topological end-states (ES), and correlation-induced magnetic moments, which exhibit localization along all edges of the AGNRs. Notably, we show the robustness of these correlation-induced magnetic moments relative to end modifications, within the scope of the method we employ.