Unusual magnetic transition and enhanced diamagnetism in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite with long-range stacking-order

The recent observations of unusual superconductive effects in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and twisted bi-layer, tri-layer and multilayer graphene materials have attracted an important attention. In this work we present a novel investigation on the relationship between structural ordering and magnetism in HOPG. Orientation dependent X-ray diffraction and temperature dependent magnetometry allowed for the identification of those HOPG samples exhibiting a long-range ordering along the c-axis. ZFC and FC magnetic curves acquired from T ~ 2 K to 300 K revealed a significant temperature-dependent variation of the diamagnetic component. By analyzing the ZFC/FC magnetic-curves (through magnetic moment subtraction methods) we identify the presence of a weak magnetic transition in the T range from 200 K to 2 K. The possible origin of the observed magnetization-trend is interpreted in relation to contributions arising from 1) disorder-rich locally-twisted-interfaces and 2) those internal graphitic sublattices exhibiting negative thermal expansion. Interestingly, magnetization against field measurements acquired at T ~ 50 K (max. field of 150 Oe) revealed the presence of a weak ferromagnetic-like hysteresis. Disappearance of the unusual ZFC/FC signal-splitting was instead found in those magnetic curves acquired from other HOPG samples with higher degree of disorder (short-range-ordering along the c-axis). This second category of samples was found to exhibit a disorder-mediated re-entrant spin-glass-like ferromagnetic behavior. [Display omitted] •We present a novel investigation on HOPG samples exhibiting a long-range ordering along the c-axis.•ZFC and FC magnetic curves from T ~ 2 K to 300 K revealed a temperature-dependent variation of the diamagnetic component.•We identify the presence of a weak magnetic transition in the T range from 200 K to 2 K.•Disappearance of the unusual signals-splitting was found in HOPG samples with higher degree of disorder.