Mechanical control of physical properties in the van der Waals ferromagnet Cr2Ge2Te6 via application of electric current

Abstract

Cr2Ge2Te6 is a van der Waals ferromagnet with a Curie temperature at 66 K. Here we report a swift change in the magnetic ground state upon application of small DC electric current, a giant yet anisotropic magnetoelectric effect, and a sharp, lattice-driven quantum switching manifested in the I-V characteristic of the bulk single-crystal Cr2Ge2Te6. At the heart of these observed phenomena is a newly uncovered, strongly anisotropic magnetoelastic coupling that enables strongly anisotropic responses of the lattice to application of electric current and/or magnetic field, thus the exotic phenomena in Cr2Ge2Te6. Such a rare mechanical tunability in the magnetic semiconductors promises tantalizing prospects for unique functional materials and devices.

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References in corpus (5)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• Strange electrical transport: Colossal magnetoresistance via avoiding fully polarized magnetization in ferrimagnetic insulator Mn3Si2Te6
• Atomic scale electronic structure of the ferromagnetic semiconductor Cr2Ge2Te6
• Electrical Control of Structural and Physical Properties via Strong Spin-Orbit Interactions in Sr2IrO4
• Towards Electrical-Current Control of Quantum States in Spin-Orbit-Coupled Matter