Room-temperature superparamagnetism due to giant magnetic anisotropy in Mo${}_S$ defected single-layer MoS${}_2$

Abstract

Room-temperature superparamagnetism due to a large magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of a single atom magnet has always been a prerequisite for nanoscale magnetic devices. Realization of two dimensional (2D) materials such as single-layer (SL) MoS${}_2$, has provided new platforms for exploring magnetic effects, which is important for both fundamental research and for industrial applications. Here, we use density functional theory (DFT) to show that the antisite defect (Mo${}_S$) in SL MoS${}_2$ is magnetic in nature with a magnetic moment of $\mu$ of $\sim$ 2${\mu }_B$ and, remarkably, exhibits an exceptionally large atomic scale MAE$={\epsilon }_{\parallel }-{\epsilon }_{\perp }$ of $\sim$500 meV. Our calculations reveal that this giant anisotropy is the joint effect of strong crystal field and significant spin-orbit coupling (SOC). In addition, the magnetic moment $\mu$ can be tuned between 1${\mu }_B$ and 3${\mu }_B$ by varying the Fermi energy ${\epsilon }_F$, which can be achieved either by changing the gate voltage or by chemical doping. We also show that MAE can be raised to $\sim$1 eV with n-type doping of the MoS${}_2$:Mo${}_S$ sample. Our systematic investigations deepen our understanding of spin-related phenomena in SL MoS${}_2$ and could provide a route to nanoscale spintronic devices.

7 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (6)

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• Tunneling Spin Injection into Single Layer Graphene
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Vibronic response of a spin-1/2 state from a carbon impurity in two-dimensional WS${}_2$
• Magneto-optical Kerr effect in spin split two-dimensional massive Dirac materials
• DFT study of itinerant ferromagnetism in $p$-doped monolayers of MoS${}_2$
• DFT+U Investigation of magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Mn-doped transition-metal dichalcogenides monolayers