Effect of vacancies on magnetic correlations and conductance in graphene nanoflakes with realistic Coulomb interaction

Abstract: We study the effect of various configurations of vacancies on the magnetic properties of graphene nanoflake (GNF) with screened realistic long-range electron interaction [T. O. Wehling, et. al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 236805 (2011)] within the functional renormalization group approach. In agreement with previous studies, the presence of vacancies in GNF yields to a strong enhancement of spin-density-wave (SDW) correlations. We show however that only some part of the considered configurations of vacancies posses SDW ground state. The probability of a system with a random configuration of vacancies to be in the SDW ground state increases with increase of vacancy concentration. The disorder-averaged sublattice magnetization increases linearly with the concentration of vacancies. The ratio of the sublattice magnetizations at the center and edges of GNF, averaged over various realizations of disorder, depends only weakly on the number of vacancies. The effects of vacancies on the linear conductance and charge properties of GNF are discussed.