The Spontaneous Generation of Magnetic Moment of Beryllium Dimer on Graphene

Graphene has various potential applications in electronics and scientists are seeking to introduce magnetic properties on graphene. Here we report our theoretical findings that a local magnetic moment as large as 1 $\mu_B$ can be generated from the adsorption of the diamagnetic beryllium dimer on perfect diamagnetic graphene. Unexpectedly the adsorption system is remarkably stable as evidenced by the binding energy of 1.04 eV, indicating that the formation of beryllium dimer is energetically much favorable. Analyses reveal that the magnetic moment and stability is originated from the spontaneous transfer of one electron from the anti-bonding orbital of the dimer to graphene.