Spin-glass state induced by Mn-doping into a moderate gap layered semiconductor SnSe${}_2$

Abstract

Various types of magnetism can appear in emerging quantum materials such as van der Waals layered ones. Here, we report the successful doping of manganese atoms into a post-transition metal dichalcogenide semiconductor: SnSe${}_2$. We synthesized a single crystal Sn${}_{1-x}$Mn${}_x$Se${}_2$ with $\text{x}$ = 0.04 by the chemical vapor transport (CVT) method and characterized it by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The magnetic properties indicated a competition between coexisting ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions, from the temperature dependence of the magnetization, together with magnetic hysteresis loops. This means that magnetic clusters having ferromagnetic interaction within a cluster form and the short-range antiferromagnetic interaction works between the clusters; a spin-glass state appears below ~ 60 K. Furthermore, we confirmed by $\text{ab initio}$ calculations that the ferromagnetic interaction comes from the 3$\text{d}$ electrons of the manganese dopant. Our results offer a new material platform to understand and utilize the magnetism in the van der Waals layered materials.

References in corpus (3)

• Quantum ESPRESSO: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials
• Superconducting density of states and vortex cores of 2H-NbS2
• Spin-glass-like behavior of Ge:Mn