Enhanced Magnetization from Proton Irradiated Bulk van der Waals Magnet CrSiTe3

TL;DR

Proton irradiation of bulk CrSiTe3 enhances its saturation magnetization and coercive field without creating additional magnetic defects, likely due to modifications in spin-lattice coupling and disorder, advancing spintronic applications.

Contribution

This study demonstrates that proton irradiation can effectively enhance magnetic properties of vdWs crystals without defect formation, a novel approach for magnetic property tuning.

Findings

23% increase in saturation magnetization

No additional magnetic defects detected after irradiation

Modification in spin-lattice coupling likely causes magnetization enhancement

Abstract

Van der Waals (vdWs) crystals have attracted a great deal of scientific attention due to their interesting physical properties and widespread practical applications. Among all, CrSiTe3 (CST) is a ferromagnetic semiconductor with the Curie temperature (TC) of ~32 K. In this letter, we study the magnetic properties of bulk CST single-crystal upon proton irradiation with the fluence of 1x1018 protons/cm2. Most significantly, we observed an enhancement (23%) in the saturation magnetization from 3.9 {\mu}B to 4.8 {\mu}B and is accompanied by an increase in the coercive field (465-542 Oe) upon proton irradiation. Temperature-dependent X-band electron paramagnetic resonance measurements show no additional magnetically active defects/vacancies that are generated upon proton irradiation. The findings from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman measurements lead us to believe that modification in the spin-lattice coupling and introduction of disorder could cause enhancement in saturation magnetization. This work demonstrates that proton irradiation is a feasible method in modifying the magnetic properties of vdWs crystals, which represents a significant step forward in designing future spintronic and magneto-electronic applications.