Current Control of Magnetism in Two-Dimensional Fe3GeTe2

Abstract

The recent discovery of magnetism in two-dimensional van der Waals systems opens the door to discovering exciting physics. We investigate how a current can control the ferromagnetic properties of such materials. Using symmetry arguments, we identify a recently realized system in which the current-induced spin torque is particularly simple and powerful. In Fe3GeTe2, a single parameter determines the strength of the spin-orbit torque for a uniform magnetization. The spin-orbit torque acts as an effective out-of-equilibrium free energy. The contribution of the spin-orbit torque to the effective free energy introduces new in-plane magnetic anisotropies to the system. Therefore, we can tune the system from an easy-axis ferromagnet via an easy-plane ferromagnet to another easy-axis ferromagnet with increasing current density. This finding enables unprecedented control and provides the possibility to study the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless phase transition in the 2D XY model and its associated critical exponents.

Manuscript: 6 pages, 2 figures; Supplementary: 4 pages, 1 figure

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• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• The structure of suspended graphene sheets
• Ising-Type Magnetic Ordering in Atomically Thin FePS3
• Spin-Motive Forces and Current-Induced Torques in Ferromagnets
• Spin wave resonances in La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}MnO_{3} films: measurement of spin wave stiffness and anisotropy field
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Cited by in corpus (9)

• Magnetic structure and exchange interactions in the layered semiconductor CrPS4
• Strong magneto-optical and anomalous transport manifestations in two-dimensional van der Waals magnets Fe${}_n$GeTe${}_2$ ($n$ = 3, 4, 5)
• Elusive Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction in Fe${}_3$GeTe${}_2$ monolayer
• Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless Phase in Two-dimensional Ferroelectrics
• Two-dimensional ferromagnetic spin-orbital excitations in the honeycomb VI${}_3$
• Giant Valley-Polarized Spin Splittings in Magnetized Janus Pt Dichalcogenides
• Spin-orbit Torque Switching in an All-Van der Waals Heterostructure
• Spin-orbit torque: Moving towards two-dimensional van der Waals heterostructures
• Valley-Polarized Quantum Anomalous Hall Phase in Bilayer Graphene with Layer-Dependent Proximity Effects