Strain tunability of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in van der Waals ferromagnets VI3

Abstract

Layered ferromagnets with high coercivity have special applications in nanoscale memory elements in electronic circuits, such as data storage. Therefore, searching for new hard ferromagnets and effectively tuning or enhancing the coercivity are the hottest topics in layered magnets today. Here, we report a strain tunability of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnets VI3 using magnetic circular dichroism measurements. For an unstrained flake, the M-H curve shows a rectangular-shaped hysteresis loop with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and a large coercivity (up to 1.775 T at 10 K). Furthermore, the coercivity can be enhanced to a maximum of 2.6 T at 10 K under a 2.9% in-plane tensile strain. Our DFT calculations show that the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) can be dramatically increased after applying an in-plain tensile strain, which contributes to the enhancement of coercivity in the VI3 flake. Meanwhile, the strain tunability on the coercivity of CrI3, with a similar crystal structure, is limited. The main reason is the strong spin-orbital coupling in V3+ in VI6 octahedra in comparison with that in Cr3+. The strain tunability of coercivity in VI3 flakes highlights its potential for integration into vdW heterostructures, paving the way toward nanoscale spintronic devices and applications in the future.

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Cited by in corpus (5)

• Magnetic Anisotropy in Two-dimensional van der Waals Magnetic Materials and Their Heterostructures: Importance, Mechanisms, and Opportunities
• Signatures of Kitaev interactions in the van der Waals ferromagnet VI3
• Evidence of temperature-dependent interplay between spin and orbital moment in van der Waals ferromagnet VI3
• Magnetic ground state and strain-mediated chiral-like atomic distortions behavior in two-dimensional rectangular spin lattice
• Valence Modifications in Hygroscopic VI3 Degraded Crystals via Soft X-Ray Synchrotron Radiation