Spin-polarized states of the CVD-grown graphene on the Ni(111) substrate

Matsumoto, Yoshihiro; Entani, Shiro; Otomo, Manabu; Avramov, P.; Naramoto, Hiroshi*; Amemiya, Kenta*; Sakai, Seiji

Graphene-based materials are attractive for molecular spintronics applications because their high mobility and small spin-orbit coupling are expected to give rise to long spin-relaxation length. In the present work, the depth-resolved X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy has been applied to the single layer graphene grown on the Ni(111) substrate by chemical vapor deposition method. As a result, the XMCD signals corresponding to the spin-polarization of graphene were detected clearly. On the other hand, the XMCD signal attributed to carbon atoms dissolved in Ni are also found near the graphene/Ni interface, and its direction is in the inverse orientation to those of graphene. This implies that it is necessary to prepare the chemically sharp hetero-interface to realize the efficient spin-injection from ferromagnetic metal to a graphene layer.