Tuning the Magnetism in Ultrathin CrxTey Films by Lattice Dimensionality

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) magnetic transition metal compounds with atomic thickness exhibit intriguing physics in fundamental research and great potential for device applications. Understanding the correlations between their macrosopic magnetic properties and the dimensionality of microscopic magnetic exchange interactions are valuable for the designing and applications of 2D magnetic crystals. Here, using spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy, magnetization and magneto-transport measurements, we identify the zigzag-antiferromagnetism in monolayer CrTe2, incipient ferromagnetism in bilayer CrTe2, and robust ferromagnetism in bilayer Cr3Te4 films. Our density functional theory calculations unravel that the magnetic ordering in ultrathin CrTe2 is sensitive to the lattice parameters, while robust ferromagnetism with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in Cr3Te4 is stabilized through its anisotropic 3D magnetic exchange interactions.

References in corpus (7)

• Magnetic 2D materials and heterostructures
• Limits on intrinsic magnetism in graphene
• In-plane magnetic domains and Néel-like domain walls in thin flakes of the room temperature CrTe${}_2$ van der Waals ferromagnet
• ZrTe2/CrTe2: an epitaxial van der Waals platform for spintronics
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• Noncollinear magnetism in two-dimensional CrTe${}_2$

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Electronic structure of monolayer-CrTe${}_2$: an antiferromagnetic 2D van der Waals material
• Many-body electronic structure, self-doped double-exchange, and Hund metallicity in 1T-CrTe2 bulk and monolayer
• Spin reorientations in structurally metastable, disordered, and hexagonal Cr7Te8