Atomically Thin CrCl3: An In-Plane Layered Antiferromagnetic Insulator

Cai, Xinghan; Song, Tiancheng; Wilson, Nathan; Clark, Genevieve; He, Minhao; Zhang, Xiaoou; Taniguchi, Takashi; Watanabe, Kenji; Yao, Wang; Xiao, Di; McGuire, Michael A.; Cobden, David; Xu, Xiaodong

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b01317

Atomically Thin CrCl₃: An In-Plane Layered Antiferromagnetic Insulator

Journal Article · Tue May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Nano Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b01317· OSTI ID:1561640

Cai, Xinghan ^[1]; Song, Tiancheng ^[1]; Wilson, Nathan ^[1]; Clark, Genevieve ^[1]; He, Minhao ^[2]; Zhang, Xiaoou ^[3]; Taniguchi, Takashi ^[4]; Watanabe, Kenji ^[4]; Yao, Wang ^[5]; Xiao, Di ^[3]; ^[6]; Cobden, David ^[1]; Xu, Xiaodong ^[1]

Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
University of Washington, Seattle
Carnegie Mellon Univ., Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
National Inst. for Materials Science (NIMS), Tsukuba (Japan)
Univ. of Hong Kong (China)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

The recent discovery of magnetism in atomically thin layers of van der Waals (vdW) crystals has created new opportunities for exploring magnetic phenomena in the two-dimensional (2D) limit. In most 2D magnets studied to date, the c-axis is an easy axis, so that at zero applied field the polarization of each layer is perpendicular to the plane. In this work, we demonstrate that atomically thin CrCl₃ is a layered antiferromagnetic insulator with an easy-plane normal to the c-axis, that is, the polarization is in the plane of each layer and has no preferred direction within it. Ligand-field photoluminescence at 870 nm is observed down to the monolayer limit, demonstrating its insulating properties. We investigate the in-plane magnetic order using tunneling magnetoresistance in graphene/CrCl₃/graphene tunnel junctions, establishing that the interlayer coupling is antiferromagnetic down to the bilayer. From the temperature dependence of the magnetoresistance, we obtain an effective magnetic phase diagram for the bilayer. Our findings suggest that CrCl₃ should be useful for studying the physics of 2D phase transitions and for making new kinds of vdW spintronic devices.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1561640

Journal Information:: Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Journal Issue: 6 Vol. 19; ISSN 1530-6984

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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