Tuning magnetism and novel electronic wave interference patterns in nanographite materials

Antiferromagnetism in stacked nanographite is investigated with using the Hubbard-type models. The A–B stacking or the stacking near to that of A–B type is favorable for the hexagonal nanographite with zigzag edges, in order that magnetism appears. We also find that the open shell electronic structure can be an origin of the decreasing magnetic moment with the decrease of the inter-graphene distance, as experiments on adsorption of molecules suggest. Next, superperiodic patterns with a long distance in a nanographene sheet observed by STM are discussed in terms of the interference of electronic wave functions. The period and the amplitude of the oscillations decrease spatially in one direction. We explain the superperiodic patterns with a static linear potential theoretically. In the k·p model, the oscillation period decreases, and agrees with experiments. The spatial difference of the static potential is estimated as View the MathML source for View the MathML source in distance, and this value seems to be reasonable in order that the potential difference remains against perturbations, for example, by phonon fluctuations and impurity scatterings. It turns out that the long-distance oscillations come from the electronic structure of the two-dimensional graphene sheet.