Magnetically and optically active edges in phosphorene nanoribbons

Nanoribbons, nanometre-wide strips of a two-dimensional material, are a unique system in condensed matter. They combine the exotic electronic structures of low-dimensional materials with an enhanced number of exposed edges, where phenomena including ultralong spin coherence times<sup>1,2</sup>, quantum confinement<sup>3</sup> and topologically protected states<sup>4,5</sup> can emerge. An exciting prospect for this material concept is the potential for both a tunable semiconducting electronic structure and magnetism along the nanoribbon edge, a key property for spin-based electronics such as (low-energy) non-volatile transistors<sup>6</sup>. Here we report the magnetic and semiconducting properties of phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs). We demonstrate that at room temperature, films of PNRs show macroscopic magnetic properties arising from their edge, with internal fields of roughly 240 to 850 mT. In solution, a giant magnetic anisotropy enables the alignment of PNRs at sub-1-T fields. By leveraging this alignment effect, we discover that on photoexcitation, energy is rapidly funnelled to a state that is localized to the magnetic edge and coupled to a symmetry-forbidden edge phonon mode. Our results establish PNRs as a fascinating system for studying the interplay between magnetism and semiconducting ground states at room temperature and provide a stepping-stone towards using low-dimensional nanomaterials in quantum electronics.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature
Published
2025-03-12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08563-x
Citations
9
Primary Topic
Graphene research and applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.66

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article

Magnetically and optically active edges in phosphorene nanoribbons

Sascha Feldmann, Eva S. Y. Aw, Sandra Kleuskens, Alexander G. Eaton et al.
9 citations
Nature
Graphene research and applications
4.66
article

Magnetically and optically active edges in phosphorene nanoribbons

Sascha Feldmann, Eva S. Y. Aw, Sandra Kleuskens, Alexander G. Eaton, Remington Carey, Peter C. M. Christianen, Naitik A. Panjwani, Adam J. Clancy, Christopher A. Howard, Jan Behrends, Loreta A. Muscarella, Nicholas J. M. Popiel, Felix R. Fischer, Raj Pandya, Hilton B. de Aguiar, Richard Henry Friend, Arjun Ashoka, Loren Picco, Thomas G. Parton, Thomas J. Macdonald, Adam L. Cronin, Marion E. Severijnen, Rebecca R. C. Shutt, Cheng Liu
article en
9 citations

Abstract

Nanoribbons, nanometre-wide strips of a two-dimensional material, are a unique system in condensed matter. They combine the exotic electronic structures of low-dimensional materials with an enhanced number of exposed edges, where phenomena including ultralong spin coherence times<sup>1,2</sup>, quantum confinement<sup>3</sup> and topologically protected states<sup>4,5</sup> can emerge. An exciting prospect for this material concept is the potential for both a tunable semiconducting electronic structure and magnetism along the nanoribbon edge, a key property for spin-based electronics such as (low-energy) non-volatile transistors<sup>6</sup>. Here we report the magnetic and semiconducting properties of phosphorene nanoribbons (PNRs). We demonstrate that at room temperature, films of PNRs show macroscopic magnetic properties arising from their edge, with internal fields of roughly 240 to 850 mT. In solution, a giant magnetic anisotropy enables the alignment of PNRs at sub-1-T fields. By leveraging this alignment effect, we discover that on photoexcitation, energy is rapidly funnelled to a state that is localized to the magnetic edge and coupled to a symmetry-forbidden edge phonon mode. Our results establish PNRs as a fascinating system for studying the interplay between magnetism and semiconducting ground states at room temperature and provide a stepping-stone towards using low-dimensional nanomaterials in quantum electronics.

NatureVol. 639(8054)
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR), Radboud University Nijmegen (NL), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), University of Cambridge (GB), Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (FR), Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (FR), Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics (NL), École Normale Supérieure - PSL (FR), University of Bristol (GB), University of Warwick (GB), Sorbonne Université (FR), Kavli Energy NanoScience Institute (US), Interface (United Kingdom) (GB), University College London (GB), Imperial College London (GB), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH), Freie Universität Berlin (DE), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL), University of California, Berkeley (US)
Indian Institute of Science, Royal Society, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Cambridge Trust, Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, Gates Cambridge Trust, Sorbonne Université, University of Texas at El Paso, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Openalex Percentile: Top 5%
Graphene research and applications
4.66
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