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We studied the mechanism of half-metallicity (HM) formation in transition metal doped (TM) conjugated carbon based structures by first-principles electronic structure simulations. It is found that the HM is a rather complex phenomenon, determined by the ligand field splitting of d-orbitals of the transition metal (TM) atoms, the exchange splitting and the number of valence electrons. Since most of the conjugated carbon based structures possess ligands with intermediate strength, the ordering of the d-orbital splitting is similar in all structures, and the HM properties evolve according to the number of valence electrons. Based on this insight we predict that Cr-, Fe-, Co-doped graphyne will show HM, while Mn- and Ni-doped graphyne will not. By tuning the number of valence electron, we are thus able to control the emergence of HM and control the energy gaps evolving in majority or minority spin channels.

We report on the configurations and electronic properties of graphyne and graphdiyne nanoribbons with armchair and zigzag edges investigated with first principles calculations. Our results show that all the nanoribbons are semiconductors with suitable band gaps similar to silicon. And their band gaps decrease as widths of nanoribbons increase. We also find that the band gap is at the Gamma point for all graphdiyne ribbons and it is at the X point for all graphyne ribbons. Of particular interest, the band gap of zigzag graphyne nanoribbons show a unique step effect as the width increases. This property is good for tuning of the energy band gap, as in a certain range of the ribbon width, the energy gap remains constant and in reality the edge cannot be as neat as that in a theoretic model., Comment: Applied Physics Letters 2011