Abstract
The search for and study of exotic quantum states in novel low-dimensional quantum materials have triggered extensive research in recent years. Here, we systematically study the electronic and magnetic structures in the newly discovered two-dimensional quantum material C3N within the framework of density functional theory. The calculations demonstrate that C3N is an indirect-band semiconductor with an energy gap of 0.38 eV, which is in good agreement with experimental observations. Interestingly, we find van Hove singularities located at energies near the Fermi level, which is half that of graphene. Thus, the Fermi energy easily approaches that of the singularities, driving the system to ferromagnetism, under charge carrier injection, such as electric field gating or hydrogen doping. These findings not only demonstrate that the emergence of magnetism stems from the itinerant electron mechanism rather than the effects of local magnetic impurities, but also open a new avenue to designing field-effect transistor devices for possible realization of an insulator–ferromagnet transition by tuning an external electric field.
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25 August 2021
An Erratum to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-021-1110-9
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Acknowledgements
We thank S. Qiao, Z. H. Kang, and Y. Lifshitz for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDB04040300), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11404359, 21473235, 11227902, and U1632269), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association (Grant No. 2016215), and the One Hundred Person Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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Huang, WC., Li, W. & Liu, X. Exotic ferromagnetism in the two-dimensional quantum material C3N. Front. Phys. 13, 137104 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-017-0741-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11467-017-0741-3