Direct observation of van der Waals stacking-dependent interlayer magnetism

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 366; no. 6468; pp. 983 - 987
• Main Authors: Chen, Weijiong, Sun, Zeyuan, Wang, Zhongjie, Gu, Lehua, Xu, Xiaodong, Wu, Shiwei, Gao, Chunlei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The American Association for the Advancement of Science 22-11-2019; AAAS
• Subjects: Antiferromagnetism; Atomic structure; Bilayers; Chromium; Chromium bromides; Coupling (molecular); Crystal structure; Epitaxial growth; Ferromagnetism; Interlayers; Magnetic semiconductors; Magnetism; Magnets; Microscopy; Molecular beam epitaxy; Monolayers; Scanning tunneling microscopy; Science & Technology - Other Topics; Spectroscopy; Stacking
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.aav1937

Controlling the crystal structure is a powerful approach for manipulating the fundamental properties of solids. In van der Waals materials, this control can be achieved by modifying the stacking order through rotation and translation between the layers. Here, we observed stacking-dependent interlayer magnetism in the two-dimensional (2D) magnetic semiconductor chromium tribromide (CrBr
), which was enabled by the successful growth of its monolayer and bilayer through molecular beam epitaxy. Using in situ spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we directly correlate the atomic lattice structure with the observed magnetic order. Although the individual monolayer CrBr
is ferromagnetic, the interlayer coupling in bilayer depends on the stacking order and can be either ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic. Our observations pave the way for manipulating 2D magnetism with layer twist angle control.