Controlling magnetic transition of monovacancy graphene by shear distortion

The effect of shear distortion on the vacancy induced magnetism in graphene is investigated using extensive first-principles calculations. It is found that shear distortion can lead to magnetic transition between two states with high and low magnetic moments. Such a transition is reversible and results from the breaking of the in-plane symmetry of the local atoms, which reverses spin polarization of the π bands of the vacancy states near the Fermi level and leads to the change of magnetic transition by 1 µ(B). This finding opens the possibility for nanomechanical control of graphene magnetism and has potential applications in spintronics and magnetic sensing.