nl9b05165_si_001.pdf (689.44 kB)
Persistence of Magnetism in Atomically Thin MnPS3 Crystals
journal contribution
posted on 2020-03-11, 19:45 authored by Gen Long, Hugo Henck, Marco Gibertini, Dumitru Dumcenco, Zhe Wang, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Enrico Giannini, Alberto F. MorpurgoThe magnetic state
of atomically thin semiconducting layered antiferromagnets
such as CrI3 and CrCl3 can be probed by forming
tunnel barriers and measuring their resistance as a function of magnetic
field (H) and temperature (T). This
is possible because the spins within each individual layer are ferromagnetically
aligned and the tunneling magnetoresistance depends on the relative
orientation of the magnetization in adjacent layers. The situation
is different for systems that are antiferromagnetic within the layers
in which case it is unclear whether magnetoresistance measurements
can provide information about the magnetic state. Here, we address
this issue by investigating tunnel transport through atomically thin
crystals of MnPS3, a van der Waals semiconductor that in
the bulk exhibits easy-axis antiferromagnetic order
within the layers. For thick multilayers below T ∼
78 K, a T-dependent magnetoresistance sets in at
μ0H ∼ 5 T and is found to
track the boundary between the antiferromagnetic and the spin-flop
phases known from bulk measurements. We show that the magnetoresistance
persists as thickness is reduced with nearly unchanged characteristic
temperature and magnetic field scales, albeit with a different dependence
on H, indicating the persistence of magnetism in
the ultimate limit of individual monolayers.