Perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and half metallicity in Cr2Ge2Te6 nanoribbons

TL;DR

This study explores the magnetic and electronic properties of Cr2Ge2Te6 nanoribbons, revealing their stability and half-metallicity, which are promising for spintronics applications.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of edge effects, stability, and magnetic properties of Cr2Ge2Te6 nanoribbons considering spin-orbit interactions, a novel focus in this material.

Findings

TeCr edges are most stable in certain chemical potential regions.

Nanoribbons exhibit ferromagnetism with half-metallic behavior.

Edge composition influences stability and electronic properties.

Abstract

The Cr2Ge2Te6 (CGT) compound is an intrinsic ferromagnetic material with a van der Waals layered structure that shows great promise in spintronics applications. In this work, we investigated the edge effect in the formation of CGT nanoribbons with different terminations as well as the change in electronic and magnetic properties considering spin-orbit effects on the calculations. We studied the thermodynamic stability of the nanoribbon employing the surface formation energy formalism. According to the calculations, in regions of Ge-rich, Te-rich, and Ge-poor, Te-poor of chemical potential the nanoribbon with TeCr edges is the most stable structure, while in the regions of Ge-rich, Te-poor and Ge-poor, Te-poor the nanoribbon with TeCr edges and Te vacancies is the most stable structure. Furthermore, calculations show that the nanoribbon is ferromagnetic with half metal characteristics.