2D Van der Waals magnets are emerging materials which can be easily exfoliated down to few layer and to the monolayer limit while retaining magnetic order. Therefore, they can be incorporated into heterostructures to make new multifunctional devices with combined electric, optical and magnetic properties for applications in spintronics, quantum computing, and magneto-optical devices. Furthermore, 2D magnets represent a model system for the observation of new quantum phase transitions and phenomena at nanoscale.
The international research team led by Prof. Fabrizio Moro of the Department of Materials Science of the University of Milano-Bicocca have shown that two-dimensional magnetic properties can be observed in a bulk crystal of CrSBr. In particular, it has been found that magnetic anisotropy and spin-spin correlations can be observed at room temperature by electron spin resonance methods, which is well above the magnetic phase transition for CrSBr. In addition, the study suggests that the topological Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless (BKT) phase transition with the formation of spin vortex and antivortex pairs maybe be present in a CrSBr single crystal. These findings provide a key step forward to the understanding of the functional magnetic properties of a prototype 2D magnet based on CrSBr, a promising layered 2D magnet for future magneto- and topological-electronics.
This work has been carried out at the Department of Materials Science of the University of Milano- Bicocca in collaboration with research teams of the Anhui and Beijing Universities (China), the National University of Singapore and the University of Chemistry and Technology Prague (Czech Republic).
The results of the research have been presented in the paper entitled “Revealing 2D Magnetism in a Bulk CrSBr Single Crystal by Electron Spin Resonance” (DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202207044) published on Advanced Functional Materials (Impact Factor 19.924, Journal Citation Report (Clarivate Analytics, 2021)).