The edge magnetism of zigzag graphene nanoribbons is regarded as a foundation for all-carbon spin logic devices and qubits, yet its intrinsic magnetism has been extremely difficult to detect directly in experiments. Recently, the team led by Prof. Haomin Wang at the Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported in the Journal of Functional Materials and Devices that it combined scanning nitrogen-vacancy (SNVM) microscopy with Fourier-space vector reconstruction to recover the full three-dimensional stray magnetic field of zigzag graphene nanoribbons embedded in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) from single-axis field data.
The results show that the stray field generated at the nanoribbon edges is dominated by the out-of-plane component, which peaks at about 0.37 millitesla. This provides direct nanoscale evidence of strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and offers quantitative experimental support for the ferrimagnetic ground state of the system.
Control experiments on armchair-edged nanoribbons and empty trenches detected no magnetic signal, confirming that the magnetism originates from the intrinsic electron spin polarization induced by carbon-boron interface coupling. The study demonstrates the capability of vector scanning nitrogen-vacancy magnetometry for resolving magnetic structures in two-dimensional quantum materials and provides key physical parameters for the design of graphene-based spintronic devices.
See the article: Quantitative vector magnetic field imaging of zigzag graphene nanoribbons embedded in hexagonal boron nitride
https://doi.org/10.3724/jfmd.2511094
Quantitative vector magnetic field imaging of zigzag graphene nanoribbons embedded in hexagonal boron nitride
10-Jun-2026