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arXiv · 2011.02775

Engineering the ligand states by surface functionalization: A new way to enhance the ferromagnetism of CrI3

Abstract

The newly discovered 2D magnetic materials provide new opportunities for basic physics and device applications. However, their low Curie temperature (TC) is a common weakness. In this paper, by combining magnetic Hamiltonian, Wannier functions and first-principle calculations, we systematically study the magnetic properties of monolayer CrI3 functionalized by halogen. The magnetic exchange coupling (EX) and magnetic anisotropy (MA) are found to increase significantly by X (X=F, Cl and Br) atom adsorption, and increase along with the coverage of X atom. In the frame work of superexchange theory, the enhanced EX can be ascribed to the reduced energy difference and increased hopping strength between Cr d and I p orbitals, due to the states of I ligand are engineered by X adatom. Besides, the X adatom may provide additional ferromagnetic superexchange channel. Finally, the CrI3 that one side is fully adsorbed by F atoms is found to be a room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductor with TC=650 K. Our results not only give an insightful understanding for the enhancement of ferromagnetism of CrI3 by atom adsorption, but also propose a promising way to improve the ferromagnetism of 2D magnetic materials.

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Hongxing Li, Zi-Peng Cheng, Bin-Guang He, Wei-Bing Zhang. 2020-11-05. Engineering the ligand states by surface functionalization: A new way to enhance the ferromagnetism of CrI3. https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.02775

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