<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>π</mml:mi></mml:math>-Electron Ferromagnetism in Metal-Free Carbon Probed by Soft X-Ray Dichroism

Abstract

Elemental carbon represents a fundamental building block of matter and the possibility of ferromagnetic order in carbon has attracted widespread attention. However, the origin of magnetic order in such a light element is only poorly understood and has puzzled researchers. We present a spectromicroscopy study at room temperature of proton irradiated metal-free carbon using the elemental and chemical specificity of x-ray magnetic circular dichroism. We demonstrate that the magnetic order in the investigated system originates only from the carbon pi-electron system.