Nanomechanical probing and strain tuning of the Curie temperature in suspended Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ heterostructures

Makars Šiškins; Samer Kurdi; Martin Lee; Benjamin J. M. Slotboom; Wenyu Xing; Samuel Mañas-Valero; Eugenio Coronado; Shuang Jia; Wei Han; Toeno van der Sar; Herre S. J. van der Zant; Peter G. Steeneken

paper

Nanomechanical probing and strain tuning of the Curie temperature in suspended Cr $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ Te $_{6}$ heterostructures

arXiv:2104.09614

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials with strong magnetostriction are interesting systems for strain-tuning the magnetization, enabling potential for realizing spintronic and nanomagnetic devices. Realizing this potential requires understanding of the magneto-mechanical coupling in the 2D limit. In this work, we suspend thin Cr $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ Te $_{6}$ layers, creating nanomechanical membrane resonators. We probe its mechanical and magnetic properties as a function of temperature and strain. Pronounced signatures of magneto-elastic coupling are observed in the temperature-dependent resonance frequency of these membranes near $T_{C}$ . We further utilize Cr $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ Te $_{6}$ in heterostructures with thin layers of WSe $_{2}$ and FePS $_{3}$ , which have positive thermal expansion coefficients, to compensate the negative thermal expansion coefficient of Cr $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ Te $_{6}$ and quantitatively probe the corresponding $T_{C}$ . Finally, we induce a strain of $0.016%$ in a suspended heterostructure via electrostatic force and demonstrate a resulting enhancement of $T_{C}$ by $2.5 \pm 0.6$ K in the absence of an external magnetic field.

Nanomechanical probing and strain tuning of the Curie temperature in suspended Cr2​Ge2​Te6​ heterostructures

Abstract

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Nanomechanical probing and strain tuning of the Curie temperature in suspended Cr $_{2}$ Ge $_{2}$ Te $_{6}$ heterostructures