Magnetism in Two-Dimensional Ilmenenes: Intrinsic Order and Strong Anisotropy

The study of the intrinsic magnetic properties of 2D systems is novel, and most of the materials that have been synthesized are magnetic van der Waals crystals [1,2]. Ilmenene layer is already an exciting two-dimensional material that was recently exfoliated from existing iron titanate ore (TiFeO3) [3] and currently constitutes a representative example of a 2D non-van der Waals compound. In this talk, we report on not only the structural and electronic properties, but also the magnetic properties of the family of ilmenene-like layers with 3d transition metals. The study of the magnetic order reveals that these ilmenenes usually present an intrinsic antiferromagnetic coupling between the 3d magnetic metals that decorate both sides of the Ti-O layer. Our calculations including spin-orbit coupling reveal that magnetic ilmenenes have large magnetocrystalline anisotropy energies when the 3d shell departs from being either ?lled or half-?lled, with their spin orientation being out-of-plane for elements below half ?lling 3d states and in-plane above half ?lling. These interesting magnetic properties of ilmenenes make them useful for future spintronic applications because they could be synthesized as already realized in the iron case. The goal is to establish a broad theoretical groundwork for future research on the magnetism of these ilmenene layers, so that all of them can be synthesized and their interesting properties can be studied in the near future, just as is performed for ilmenites, their 3D stacking counterparts [4].

References

[1] Burch, K. S., Mandrus, D., & Park, J. G. (2018). Magnetism in two-dimensional van der Waals materials. Nature, 563(7729), 47-52.

[2] Huang, B., et al (2017). Layer-dependent ferromagnetism in a van der Waals crystal down to the monolayer limit. Nature, 546(7657), 270-273.

[3] Puthirath Balan, A. et al. (2018). Chem. Mater., 30, 5923–5931.

[4] Arruabarrena, M.; Leonardo, A.; Rodriguez-Vega, M.; Fiete, G. A.; Ayuela, A. (2022). Phys. Rev. B, 105, 144425; Elliot, M.; McClarty, P.; Prabhakaran, D.; Johnson, R.; Walker, H.; Manuel, P.; Coldea, R. (20021). Nature Communications, 12, 3936; Yuan, B.; Khait, I.; Shu, G.-J.; Chou, F. C.; Stone, M. B.; Clancy, J. P.; Paramekanti, A.; Kim, Y.-J.. (2020). Phys. Rev. X, 10, 011062.