Structure, magnetic, and electronic properties of hydrogenated two-dimensional diamond films

In this paper, we study the effects of semi-hydrogenation (SH) and full-hydrogenation (FH) on the structural evolution and properties of two-dimensional (2D) diamond nanofilms by first-principles calculations. Both the hydrogenation processes play an important role in stabilizing the 2D diamond structures. For the FH cases, the direct bandgaps are localized in the region of 2.54–3.55 eV and decreased following an inverse law with layer number (n). For the SH cases, a ferrimagnetism characteristic is presented determining by the unpaired electrons on the un-hydrogenated side, and the spin-related bandgaps are in an infrared region of 0.74–1.17 eV, which are strongly dependent on n. As a result, the hydrogenation is favorable for tuning the electronic and magnetic properties of 2D diamond nanofilms to achieve high performance diamond-based nanodevices.