Determining the phase diagram of atomically thin layered antiferromagnet CrCl$_3$

TL;DR

This study maps the magnetic phase diagram of atomically thin CrCl₃ multilayers using tunneling conductance measurements, revealing layer-dependent transitions and dominant shape anisotropy in these weakly anisotropic antiferromagnets.

Contribution

The paper introduces a method to determine the magnetic phase diagram of atomically-thin CrCl₃ multilayers through tunneling conductance analysis, highlighting layer-dependent magnetic transitions.

Findings

High-field spin-flip transition observed across all thicknesses.

Even-odd layer number effect on low-field spin-flop transition.

Shape anisotropy dominates over magnetic anisotropy in CrCl₃.

Abstract

Changes in the spin configuration of atomically-thin, magnetic van-der-Waals multilayers can cause drastic modifications in their opto-electronic properties. Conversely, the opto-electronic response of these systems provides information about the magnetic state, very difficult to obtain otherwise. Here we show that in CrCl$_3$ multilayers, the dependence of the tunnelling conductance on applied magnetic field ($H$), temperature ($T$), and number of layers ($N$) tracks the evolution of the magnetic state, enabling the magnetic phase diagram of these systems to be determined experimentally. Besides a high-field spin-flip transition occurring for all thicknesses, the in-plane magnetoconductance exhibits an even-odd effect due to a low-field spin-flop transition. If the layer number $N$ is even, the transition occurs at $\mu_0 H \sim 0$ T due to the very small in-plane magnetic anisotropy, whereas for odd $N$ the net magnetization of the uncompensated layer causes the transition to occur at finite $H$. Through a quantitative analysis of the phenomena, we determine the interlayer exchange coupling as well as the staggered magnetization, and show that in CrCl$_3$ shape anisotropy dominates. Our results reveal the rich behaviour of atomically-thin layered antiferromagnets with weak magnetic anisotropy.