Ph.D. student Nina Lane (advisors: Michel Barsoum and James Rondinelli), A. W. Grosvenor Professor Michel Barsoum, and assistant professor James Rondinelli report a first-principles study of a new 5d two-dimensional carbide with a graphene-like lattice and semi-metallic behavior in Europhysics Letters.
The two-dimensional Tan+1Cn (n = 1,2,3) (left), and their corresponding electronic band structures.Their article, “Correlation effects and spin-orbit interactions in two-dimensional hexagonal 5d transition metal carbides, Tan+1Cn (n=1, 2, 3),” describes how the dimensionality of the pristine sheets due to changes in polyhedral stacking alters the electron–electron interactions and the stability of long-range magnetic order. These low-dimensional carbide materials with heavy transition metal cations offer a new route to incorporate magnetism for novel spin-based electronics without the need for post-processing surface functionalization.