Great enhancement of Curie temperature and magnetic anisotropy in two-dimensional van der Waals magnetic semiconductor heterostructures

Abstract

In two-dimensional (2D) magnetic systems, large magnetic anisotropy is needed to stabilize the magnetic order according to Mermin-Wagner theorem. Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we propose that the magnetic anisotropic energy (MAE) of 2D ferromagnetic (FM) semiconductors can be strongly enhanced in van der Waals heterostructures by attaching a nonmagnetic semiconductor monolayer with large spin-orbit coupling. We studied Cr2Ge2Te6/PtSe2 bilayer heterostructures, where each layer has been realized in recent experiments. The DFT calculations show that the MAE of Cr2Ge2Te6/PtSe2 is enhanced by 70%, and the Curie temperature TC is increased far beyond room temperature. A model Hamiltonian is suggested to analyze the DFT results, showing that both the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and the single-ion anisotropy contribute to the enhancement of the MAE. Based on the superexchange picture, we find that the decreased energy difference between 3d orbitals of Cr and 5p orbitals of Te contributes partially to the increase of TC. Our present work indicates a promising way to enhance the MAE and TC by constructing van der Waals semiconductor heterostructures, which will inspire further studies on the 2D magnetic semiconductor systems.

10 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (15)

• Nearly room temperature ferromagnetism in pressure-induced correlated metallic state of van der Waals insulator CrGeTe${}_3$
• Interface-enhanced ferromagnetism with long-distance effect in van der Waals semiconductor
• Magnetic Anisotropy in Two-dimensional van der Waals Magnetic Materials and Their Heterostructures: Importance, Mechanisms, and Opportunities
• Emergent magnetic states due to stacking and strain in the van der Waals magnetic trilayer CrI3
• Two-dimensional Heisenberg models with materials-dependent superexchange interactions
• Room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors through metal-semiconductor transition in monolayer MnSe2
• Strong uniaxial pressure dependencies evidencing spin-lattice coupling and spin fluctuations in Cr${}_2$Ge${}_2$Te${}_6$
• Majorana corner modes in unconventional monolayers of the 1T-PtSe2 family
• Ferroelectrically Switchable Half-Quantized Hall Effect
• Enhancement of temperature of quantum anomalous Hall effect in two-dimensional germanene/magnetic semiconductor heterostructures
• Tailoring coercive fields and the Curie temperature via proximity coupling in WSe${}_2$/Fe${}_3$GeTe${}_2$ van der Waals heterostructures
• Enhanced ferromagnetism in artificially stretched lattice in quasi two-dimensional Cr2Ge2Te6
• Near room-temperature ferromagnetism from double-exchange in the van der Waals material CrGeTe${}_3$: evidence from optical conductivity under pressure
• Strain-Mediated Lattice Reconstruction Enhances Ferromagnetism in Cr2Ge2Te6/WTe2 van der Waals Heterobilayers
• Nanomechanical probing and strain tuning of the Curie temperature in suspended Cr${}_2$Ge${}_2$Te${}_6$ heterostructures