Atomically-thin Cr₂Te₃ ferromagnet - a 2D half-metal

Recently, several two-dimensional (2D) materials of magnetic order, including CrI₃ and Cr₂Ge₂Te₆, have been reported, which opens up opportunities for device applications integrating these magnets with other van der Waals (vdW) crystals. However, most of these materials are vdW structures which rely on mechanical exfoliation techniques to obtain ultra-thin flakes. Furthermore, most 2D magnets have poor stability and low magnetic transition temperature, which limit their practical applications. To search for 2D materials with improved magnetic properties, one needs to look beyond vdW crystals. In this work, the non-vdW 2D magnetic Cr₂Te₃ with a thickness down to one-unit-cell was synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. The Cr₂Te₃ 2D crystals display robust ferromagnetism with a relatively high Curie temperature of 180 K, a large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of 7×10⁵ J m^-3, and a high coercivity of ~ 4.6 kG at 20 K. First principles calculations further show a transition from canted to collinear ferromagnetism, and emergent half-metallic behavior in atomically-thin Cr₂Te₃, paving the way for its potential application such as injecting carriers with high spin polarization into spintronic devices.