After such an exciting period of research endeavor on exploring the exotic properties of graphene (G), a new trend begins to appear to adopt graphene as a mediating material with other substances to produce more advanced functional materials with unique linear Dirac band dispersions. In this talk, some examples of graphene-mediated functional materials in the form of thin composite films will be discussed. We first describe various noble features of metal-intercalated graphene systems, for example, the distinct splitting of the Dirac bands of graphene. [1] Fig. 1 below shows the evolution of Fe-intercalated graphene with annealing temperature where the sharp -band broadens and diffused before sharpens again at 600 C when Fe-intercalation is completed. Fig. 2 shows our theoretical bands showing the splitting of the -band due to the injected spin on carbon atoms from intercalated Fe to the bottom layer of graphene. We then discuss how the surface state of Dirac band nature for topological insulators (TIs) such as Bi2Te2Se can be preserved when TI films are grown on graphene.[2] For these graphene-mediated TI films, we show that the Dirac points of graphene and of TI may be independently fine-tuned so that they may approach to one another within less than 0.2 eV in order to open a new spin-induced band gap in graphene. These graphene-mediated functional Dirac materials may be utilized as sources of spin-sensitive nanomaterials for future nano-spin devices in spintronics.

After such an exciting period of research endeavor on exploring the exotic properties of graphene (G), a new trend begins to appear to adopt graphene as a mediating material with other substances to produce more advanced functional materials with unique linear Dirac band dispersions. In this talk, some examples of graphene-mediated functional materials in the form of thin composite films will be discussed. We first describe various noble features of metal-intercalated graphene systems, for example, the distinct splitting of the Dirac bands of graphene. [1] Fig. 1 below shows the evolution of Fe-intercalated graphene with annealing temperature where the sharp -band broadens and diffused before sharpens again at 600 C when Fe-intercalation is completed. Fig. 2 shows our theoretical bands showing the splitting of the -band due to the injected spin on carbon atoms from intercalated Fe to the bottom layer of graphene. We then discuss how the surface state of Dirac band nature for topological insulators (TIs) such as Bi2Te2Se can be preserved when TI films are grown on graphene.[2] For these graphene-mediated TI films, we show that the Dirac points of graphene and of TI may be independently fine-tuned so that they may approach to one another within less than 0.2 eV in order to open a new spin-induced band gap in graphene. These graphene-mediated functional Dirac materials may be utilized as sources of spin-sensitive nanomaterials for future nano-spin devices in spintronics.