Twist-assisted tunability and enhanced ferromagnetism in a 2D Van Der Waal's Heterostructure

The two-dimensional (2D) Van Der Waal’s heterostructures  have recently attracted considerable attention due to its novel and extraordinary properties.  In this work, the density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been used to explore the electronic and magnetic properties of Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ (CGT)/Graphene vertical heterostructure under different twist angles. We studied CGT/Graphene heterostructures, where each layer has been realized in experiments. The CGT monolayer has recently drawn much attention due to its 2D long-range ferromagnetic (FM) order. However, its Curie temperature (T_c) is too low (∼61 K) for practical spintronic applications. The study of this vertical junctions demonstrated that interlayer interactions led to the formation of strong spin polarization, electronic phase transition and a T_c value of ∼133 K  at a twist angle of 8.95⁰. Furthermore, we proposed that the ferromagnetic property of  this 2D magnetic semiconductor can be strongly enhanced in van der Waals heterostructures by attaching a nonmagnetic monolayer. Therefore, the integration of ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic properties in a single 2D material will be beneficial for practical applications in spintronics as well as storage devices.