Evidence of temperature-dependent interplay between spin and orbital moment in van der Waals ferromagnet VI3

Abstract

Van der Waals materials provide a versatile toolbox for the emergence of new quantum phenomena and the fabrication of functional heterostructures. Among them, the trihalide VI3 stands out for its unique magnetic and structural landscape. Here we investigate the spin and orbital magnetic degrees of freedom in the layered ferromagnet VI3 by means of temperature-dependent x-ray absorption spectroscopy and x-ray magnetic circular and linear dichroism. We detect localized electronic states and reduced magnetic dimensionality, due to electronic correlations. We furthermore provide experimental evidence of (a) an unquenched orbital magnetic moment (up to 0.66(7)) in the ferromagnetic state, and (b) an instability of the orbital moment in proximity of the spin reorientation transition. Our results support a coherent picture where electronic correlations give rise to a strong magnetic anisotropy and a large orbital moment, and establish VI3 as a prime candidate for the study of orbital quantum effects.

References in corpus (13)

• Magnetic 2D materials and heterostructures
• Ferromagnetic van der Waals crystal VI3
• VI3 - a new layered ferromagnetic semiconductor
• Bulk properties of van-der-Waals hard ferromagnet VI3
• Magnetic Transition in Monolayer VSe2 via Interface Hybridization
• Crystal Structures and Phase Transitions of the van-der-Waals Ferromagnet VI3
• Large orbital magnetic moment in VI3
• Strain tunability of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in van der Waals ferromagnets VI3
• Magnetic order and its interplay with structure phase transition in van der Waals ferromagnet VI${}_3$
• Probing magnetism in exfoliated VI${}_3$ layers with magnetotransport
• Dynamical correlation enhanced orbital magnetization in VI${}_3$
• Polarization dependent photoemission as a probe of the magnetic ground state in the layered ferromagnet VI3
• Anisotropic hybridization probed by polarization dependent x-ray absorption spectroscopy in VI3 van der Waals Mott ferromagnet

Cited by in corpus (2)

• Valence Modifications in Hygroscopic VI3 Degraded Crystals via Soft X-Ray Synchrotron Radiation
• Orbital mixing and strong Hund's coupling stabilize spin order in van der Waals ferromagnet CrI3