Giant magnetic anisotropy of transition-metal dimers on defected graphene.

Continuous miniaturization of magnetic units in spintronics and quantum computing devices inspires efforts to search for magnetic nanostructures with giant magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) and high structural stability. Through density functional theory calculations, we found that either Pt-Ir or Os-Ru dimer forms a stable vertical structure on the defected graphene and possess an MAE larger than 60 meV, sufficient for room-temperature applications. Interestingly, their MAEs can be conveniently manipulated by using an external electric field, which makes them excellent magnetic units in spintronics and quantum computing devices.