Novel Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Graphene Nanoflakes in a Boron Nitride Layer

Novel electronic and magnetic properties of various-sized graphene nanoflakes (GNFs) embedded in a boron nitride (BN) layer were studied by ab initio methods. The feasibility of synthesizing hybrid GNF-BN structure, a desirable quantum dot structure, was explored. In this structure, photoexcited electrons and holes occupy the same spatial region-the GNF region-which offers an effective way to generate a GNF-based light-emitting device and adjust its emitted optical properties by controlling the size and array of GNF in the BN layer. On the basis of the important magnetism properties of embedded GNF, we propose a specific configuration to obtain a large spin. Together with the high stability of spin alignment, the proposed configuration can be exploited for spintronic devices.