Lapo Bogani, Department of Materials, University of Oxford, 16 Parks Road, OX1 6RP, Oxford, UK  The problem of how flowing electrons interact with single spins is a fundamental one, which conceptually determines the working principles and performances of spintronic devices. The influence of the graphene environment on the spin systems has yet to be unraveled, as well as how molecular systems can be used to control spin currents or single magnetic molecules. Here we concentrate on our approach of using graphene as a conductor that can interact with molecular magnets. We first explore the spin-graphene interaction by studying the classical and quantum dynamics of molecular magnets on graphene. While the static spin response remains unaltered, the quantum spin dynamics and associated selection rules are profoundly modulated.[1] We quantify the effect of the perturbed phonon environment on the classical dynamics of molecular spins, and we then show that the presence of the conduction channel can strongly alter the quantum properties. We then show how to inject coherent spin currents in graphene planes and how molecular spins can be used to control them.[2] We show that the Hanle precession can be strongly influenced by the interaction with molecular spins, which can introduce an additional level of control for the spintronic response.[2] Eventually, we show how nanoscale gaps can be created in graphene to accommodate single molecule magnets, and what parameters dominate the anisotropy of such single-molecule spintronic devices. [1] C.Cervetti et al., Nature Mat., 2016, 15, 164-169. [2] C. Cervetti et al., submitted.  Lapo Bogani is currently ERC and Royal Society group leader at the University of Oxford. He is primarily interested in the magnetic and electronic properties of nanoscale devices, with particular attention to the integration of molecular magnetic systems in nanoelectronic devices. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The University of Florence, Italy (2006) working on the magnetic properties of one-dimensional materials. The then Moved to CNRS Grenoble with an individually-driven Marie Curie fellowship, where he was one of the main proponents of molecular spintronic systems (2009) using carbon nanomaterials. He then received the prestigious Sofja Kovalevskaja research prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, which he developed at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. He joined the faculty at the Department of Materials, University of Oxford, in 2015. His awards and distinctions include, among the others, the Burghen award of the European Academy of Sciences, the Olivier Kahn prize for molecular magnetism, the Nasini and Semerano prizes of the Italian Chemical Society and the Nicholas Kurti European Science Prize. His personal grants include, among others, the Marie Curie and Royal Society research fellowships and the Sofja Kovalevskaja and ERC Starting grants. |