Quenching of magnetic moments due to defect states hybridization in V doped WS₂

Dilute magnetic semiconductors, achieved through substitutional doping of spin-polarized transition metals into semiconducting systems, enable experimental modulation of spin dynamics in ways that hold great promise for novel magneto-electric or magneto-optical devices. A room-temperature 2D dilute magnetic semiconductor can be achieved by doping vanadium into WS₂^[1]. Ferromagnetism peaks at an intermediate vanadium concentration of a few atomic percent and decreases for higher concentrations. The experimentally observed non-monotonicity of the magnetization as a function of the doping level can be explained by hybridization between dopant defect states that quenches the magnetic moments when they approach too closely. An effective Zeeman shift at valleys in this system corresponds to an external magnetic field of ~100 T.

[1] Zhang, Fu, et al. "Monolayer Vanadium-doped Tungsten Disulfide: A Room-Temperature Dilute Magnetic Semiconductor." arXiv preprint arXiv:2005.01965 (2020).