Tunable d0 magnetism of hexagonal boron nitride introduced through an adjacent doping strategy

To meet the current requirements of diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) resulting from continuous advancements in spintronics, designing d0 DMSs with high stability, spin polarization, and Curie temperature is essential. Present research on introducing d0 magnetism is limited to monatomic doping, lacking regulation measures for local magnetic moments and long range magnetic coupling. Herein, an adjacent doping strategy is employed to introduce degrees of freedom for tuning the magnetic properties of d0 DMSs. It is observed that by introducing Si and O atoms as central and adjacent dopants, respectively, the intrinsically nonmagnetic hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) exhibits significant local magnetic moments. Furthermore, it is observed that the ionization energy, total magnetic moment, magnetic coupling, and Curie temperature of the doped h-BN are susceptible to the Si–O coordination. Subsequently, a magnetic half-metal (Si–O3-doped h-BN) with high thermal stability, 100% spin polarization, long range ferromagnetic coupling, and high Curie temperature is designed through high Si–O coordination doping. This study proposes a feasible approach for introducing tunable d0 magnetism using the design of Si–O adjacent-doped h-BN as an example.