Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Distinct magneto-Raman signatures of spin-flip phase transitions in CrI3

Published

Author(s)

Amber D. McCreary, Thuc T. Mai, Franz Utermohlen, Jeffrey R. Simpson, Kevin F. Garrity, Xiaozhou Feng, Dmitry Shcherbakov, Yanglin Zhu, Jin Hu, Daniel Weber, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, Joshua Goldberger, Zhiqiang Mao, Chun Ning Lau, Yuanming Lu, Nandini Trivedi, Rolando Valdes Aguilar, Angela R. Hight Walker

Abstract

The discovery of 2-dimensional (2D) materials, such as CrI3, that retain magnetic ordering down to monolayer thickness, and even more have layer-dependent magnetic properties has led to a plethora of research in 2D magnetism. Here, we report a magneto-Raman spectroscopy study on multilayered CrI3, especially focusing on two new modes which appear below the magnetic ordering temperature and have been previously attributed to magnons. Fascinatingly, we observe a striking evolution of the Raman spectra with applied magnetic field, with some modes disappearing and others appearing with increased magnetic field. Distinct jumps in the intensities of the modes follow jumps in recent magneto-tunneling measurements attributed to the interlayer exchange interaction changing from antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic at a critical magnetic field. Our work highlights that Raman modes are highly sensitive to weak interlayer exchange coupling in CrI3, proving a diffraction-limited and non-contact technique to probe these spin-flip phase transitions. In addition, we offer potential origins for the new modes, which we deduce are not, in fact, magnons.
Citation
Nature Communications
Volume
11
Issue
1

Keywords

Raman spectroscopy, magneto-Raman, phonon, 2D materials, CrI3, ferromagnet, magnon, phase transition

Citation

McCreary, A. , Mai, T. , Utermohlen, F. , Simpson, J. , Garrity, K. , Feng, X. , Shcherbakov, D. , Zhu, Y. , Hu, J. , Weber, D. , Watanabe, K. , Taniguchi, T. , Goldberger, J. , Mao, Z. , , C. , Lu, Y. , Trivedi, N. , Valdes, R. and Hight, A. (2020), Distinct magneto-Raman signatures of spin-flip phase transitions in CrI3, Nature Communications, [online], https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17320-3 (Accessed October 14, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created August 2, 2020, Updated May 4, 2021