Dirac Electron Behavior for Spin-Up Electrons in Strongly Interacting Graphene on Ferromagnetic Mn5Ge3.

An elegant approach for the synthesis of graphene on the strong ferromagnetic (FM) material Mn5Ge3 is proposed via intercalation of Mn in the graphene-Ge(111) interface. According to the density functional theory calculations, graphene in this strongly interacting system demonstrates the large exchange splitting of the graphene-derived π band. In this case, only spin-up electrons in graphene preserve the Dirac-electron-like character in the vicinity of the Fermi level and the K point, whereas such behavior is not detected for the spin-down electrons. This unique feature of the studied gr-FM-Mn5Ge3 interface that can be prepared on the semiconducting Ge can lead to its application in spintronics.