of American adults own a cellphone.

- the Pew Research Center, 2017

 The Problem
• In the past decade, electronic
technologies have grown
extremely fast
• Transistors improve, but no
longer yield large efficiency
and speed improvements
• Development is falling behind
of predictions and reaching a
plateau
Figure 1. Comparison of transistors per chip, performance,
and thermal design power of intel chips relative to the year.
[“After Moore's Law | Technology Quarterly.” The Economist, The Economist Newspaper, 25
Feb. 2016, www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2016-03-12/after-moores-law.]
Exploring Borophene
For Spintronics
Nadine Meister and Andrew Zhao
Centennial High School
Our Internship
• Summer of 2017, June - September
• Internship in Springfield, VA
• Dr. Xuan Luo, National Graphene and Research Development
Center
• Specialist in computational solid state physics
• Used computational methods to investigate materials at the
atomic level
Overview
• Background
• Spintronics
• Borophene
• Research
• Goals
• Process
• Results
• Conclusion
Spintronics
• A new approach to data
processing and storage
• Uses spin of electrons along
with charge
• Magnetism is crucial to
polarize spins
• Faster, more compact, and
efficient [“Spin-Dependent Electron Transport in
Semiconductors.” Fabian Cadiz,
fabiancadiz.com/index.php/2-uncategorised.]
Borophene 8pmmn borophene

• Recently, 2-D materials have

shown huge potentials for
spintronics
• 8-Pmmn borophene is best for
spintronics
• Higher strength, stability
• Lower energy
• Not ferromagnetic

Top. [Peng, Bo, et al. "Stability and strength of atomically thin borophene
from first principles calculations." Materials Research Letters (2017): 1-9.]
Bottom. [Diagram created by student]
Our Research Goals
Optimize borophene for spintronics
1. Introduce magnetic order
• substitutional doping of 8-Pmmn borophene with
transition metals
• Cr, Mn, Fe, and Co
2. Modify conductivity from its intrinsic metallicity
Research Process
• Drew inspiration from published
research papers
• First principles calculations,
density functional theory in
ABINIT
• Ran calculations for magnetism
and electronic structures

Input File Example

 Atomic Structure

Original 8pmmn borophene Ridge doped borophene Inner doped borophene

 Results
Ridge
Dopant Magnetization Band Gap Conductivity • Inner dopants are
(µB) (meV)
nonmagnetic,
Cr 3.01 39.2 Half-metal
Mn 3.98 285 Half-metal
semiconducting
Fe 2.83 354 Half-metal • Ridge dopants are
Co 1.53 23.8 Half-metal
magnetic, half metallic
Inner • spin polarization,
Dopant Magnetization
(µB)
Band Gap
(meV)
Conductivity
crucial to
Cr 0 148 Semiconducting spintronics
Mn 0 76.3 Semiconducting
Fe 0 254 Semiconducting
Co 0 42.7 Semiconducting
Conclusion
• Possible application in quantum
computing devices

• Future role as spin transistors to

improve computer processors

• Potentially huge leaps in size, speed,

and efficiency

• Gateway to future improvement of

computing devices