TY - JOUR
T1 - Layered Semiconductor Cr0.32Ga0.68Te2.33 with Concurrent Broken Inversion Symmetry and Ferromagnetism
T2 - A Bulk Ferrovalley Material Candidate
AU - Guan, Yingdong
AU - Miao, Leixin
AU - He, Jingyang
AU - Ning, Jinliang
AU - Chen, Yangyang
AU - Xie, Weiwei
AU - Sun, Jianwei
AU - Gopalan, Venkatraman
AU - Zhu, Jun
AU - Wang, Xiaoping
AU - Alem, Nasim
AU - Zhang, Qiang
AU - Mao, Zhiqiang
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2023/3/1
Y1 - 2023/3/1
N2 - The valleytronic state found in group-VI transition-metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2 has attracted immense interest since its valley degree of freedom could be used as an information carrier. However, valleytronic applications require spontaneous valley polarization. Such an electronic state is predicted to be accessible in a new ferroic family of materials, i.e., ferrovalley materials, which features the coexistence of spontaneous spin and valley polarization. Although many atomic monolayer materials with hexagonal lattices have been predicted to be ferrovalley materials, no bulk ferrovalley material candidates have been reported or proposed. Here, we show that a new non-centrosymmetric van der Waals (vdW) semiconductor Cr0.32Ga0.68Te2.33, with intrinsic ferromagnetism, is a possible candidate for bulk ferrovalley material. This material exhibits several remarkable characteristics: (i) it forms a natural heterostructure between vdW gaps, a quasi-two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting Te layer with a honeycomb lattice stacked on the 2D ferromagnetic slab comprised of the (Cr, Ga)-Te layers, and (ii) the 2D Te honeycomb lattice yields a valley-like electronic structure near the Fermi level, which, in combination with inversion symmetry breaking, ferromagnetism, and strong spin-orbit coupling contributed by heavy Te element, creates a possible bulk spin-valley locked electronic state with valley polarization as suggested by our DFT calculations. Further, this material can also be easily exfoliated to 2D atomically thin layers. Therefore, this material offers a unique platform to explore the physics of valleytronic states with spontaneous spin and valley polarization in both bulk and 2D atomic crystals.
AB - The valleytronic state found in group-VI transition-metal dichalcogenides such as MoS2 has attracted immense interest since its valley degree of freedom could be used as an information carrier. However, valleytronic applications require spontaneous valley polarization. Such an electronic state is predicted to be accessible in a new ferroic family of materials, i.e., ferrovalley materials, which features the coexistence of spontaneous spin and valley polarization. Although many atomic monolayer materials with hexagonal lattices have been predicted to be ferrovalley materials, no bulk ferrovalley material candidates have been reported or proposed. Here, we show that a new non-centrosymmetric van der Waals (vdW) semiconductor Cr0.32Ga0.68Te2.33, with intrinsic ferromagnetism, is a possible candidate for bulk ferrovalley material. This material exhibits several remarkable characteristics: (i) it forms a natural heterostructure between vdW gaps, a quasi-two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting Te layer with a honeycomb lattice stacked on the 2D ferromagnetic slab comprised of the (Cr, Ga)-Te layers, and (ii) the 2D Te honeycomb lattice yields a valley-like electronic structure near the Fermi level, which, in combination with inversion symmetry breaking, ferromagnetism, and strong spin-orbit coupling contributed by heavy Te element, creates a possible bulk spin-valley locked electronic state with valley polarization as suggested by our DFT calculations. Further, this material can also be easily exfoliated to 2D atomically thin layers. Therefore, this material offers a unique platform to explore the physics of valleytronic states with spontaneous spin and valley polarization in both bulk and 2D atomic crystals.
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U2 - 10.1021/jacs.2c12848
DO - 10.1021/jacs.2c12848
M3 - Article
C2 - 36795912
AN - SCOPUS:85148461934
SN - 0002-7863
VL - 145
SP - 4683
EP - 4690
JO - Journal of the American Chemical Society
JF - Journal of the American Chemical Society
IS - 8
ER -