Raman Spectroscopy, Photocatalytic Degradation and Stabilization of Atomically Thin Chromium Triiodide

TL;DR

This study uses Raman spectroscopy to analyze the instability of atomically thin chromium triiodide (CrI3), revealing photocatalytic iodine loss as a degradation pathway and demonstrating improved stability through encapsulation and light minimization.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed Raman characterization of CrI3 degradation mechanisms and shows effective stabilization methods for 2D CrI3 in ambient conditions.

Findings

Photocatalytic substitution of iodine by water is the main degradation pathway.

Encapsulation modestly reduces degradation, but light minimization significantly improves stability.

CrI3 sandwiched between hBN layers remains stable for over 10 days.

Abstract

As a 2D ferromagnetic semiconductor with magnetic ordering, atomically thin chromium triiodide is the latest addition to the family of two-dimensional (2D) materials. However, realistic exploration of CrI3-based devices and heterostructures is challenging, due to its extreme instability under ambient conditions. Here we present Raman characterization of CrI3, and demonstrate that the main degradation pathway of CrI3 is the photocatalytic substitution of iodine by water. While simple encapsulation by Al2O3, PMMA and hexagonal BN (hBN) only leads to modest reduction in degradation rate, minimizing exposure of light markedly improves stability, and CrI3 sheets sandwiched between hBN layers are air-stable for >10 days. By monitoring the transfer characteristics of CrI3/graphene heterostructure over the course of degradation, we show that the aquachromium solution hole-dopes graphene.