The effect of graphene phonons and electrons on the spin dynamics of molecules grafted on graphene was investigated in a paper published in Nature Materials (C.Cervetti, A.Rettori, M.G.Pini, A.Cornia, A.Repollés, F.Luis, M.Dressel, S.Rauschenbach, M.Burghard, and L.Bogani). Dirac electrons introduce dominant quantum-relaxation channels and allow reaching a quantum tunneling regime, that was predicted 20 years ago by the French physicist Jacques Villain. A novel theoretical background is provided, fully explaining the data. These observations have profound consequences for the design of graphene spin-processing devices and pave the way to coherent control of graphene-based spintronic devices that can be manipulated electrically.
Link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat4490
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