6533b86dfe1ef96bd12c9db0

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Temperature-dependent magnetic anisotropy in the layered magnetic semiconductors CrI3 and CrBr3

subject

description

Chromium trihalides are layered and exfoliable semiconductors and exhibit unusual magnetic properties with a surprising temperature dependence of the magnetization. By analyzing the evolution of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy with temperature in chromium iodide $\mathrm{Cr}{\mathrm{I}}_{3}$, we find it strongly changes from ${K}_{u}=300\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}50\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{kJ}/{\mathrm{m}}^{3}$ at $5\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ to ${K}_{u}=43\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}7\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{kJ}/{\mathrm{m}}^{3}$ at $60\phantom{\rule{4pt}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$, close to the Curie temperature. We draw a direct comparison to $\mathrm{CrB}{\mathrm{r}}_{3}$, which serves as a reference, and where we find results consistent with literature. In particular, we show that the anisotropy change in the iodide compound is more than 3 times larger than in the bromide. We analyze this temperature dependence using a classical model, showing that the anisotropy constant scales with the magnetization at any given temperature below the Curie temperature, indicating that the temperature dependence can be explained by a dominant uniaxial anisotropy where this scaling results from local spin clusters having thermally induced magnetization directions that deviate from the overall magnetization.