Electronic transport properties of Co cluster-decorated graphene

Interactions of magnetic elements with graphene may lead to various electronic states that have potential applications. We report an in-situ experiment in which the quantum transport properties of graphene are measured with increasing cobalt coverage in continuous ultra-high vacuum environment. The results show that e-beam deposited cobalt forms clusters on the surface of graphene, even at low sample temperatures. Scattering of charge carriers by the absorbed cobalt clusters results in the disappearance of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillations and the appearance of negative magnetoresistance (MR) which shows no sign of saturation up to an applied magnetic field of 9 T. We propose that these observations could originate from quantum interference driven by cobalt disorder and can be explained by the weak localization theory.