Fabrication of 2D Heterostructures with Air Stable van der Waals Magnetic Material CrPS₄

Stacking van der Waals (vdW) materials can lead to new behavior in two-dimensional (2D) heterostructures as a result of interlayer interactions. Additionally, moiré engineering allows for additional tunability by modifying the lattice mismatch or twist angle between two vdW crystals. CrPS₄ is an air stable antiferromagnetic 2D vdW crystal, making it a good candidate for stacking, to probe spin-orbit-coupling, superconductivity, and other strongly correlated phenomena in 2D materials. Twisted bilayer CrPS₄ (TBCrPS₄) is predicted to demonstrate coexisting ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic ground states for small twist angles¹, allowing for further tunability. Here we discuss exfoliation techniques for maximizing yield and size of thin CrPS₄ flakes toward fabricating CrPS₄ and TBCrPS₄ heterostructures.

[1] Hejazi, K., Luo, Z.-X. & Balents, Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 117, 10721 (2020).