Emergence of electric-field-tunable interfacial ferromagnetism in 2D antiferromagnet heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates electric-field control of interfacial ferromagnetism in 2D antiferromagnet heterostructures, revealing tunable magnetic properties and higher critical temperatures through magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to electrically manipulate interfacial magnetic order in vdW heterostructures of CrI3 and CrCl3, enabling new spintronic device possibilities.

Findings

Out-of-plane magnetic order in CrCl3 near CrI3

Electric-field significantly controls coercivity

Interfacial coupling enhances critical temperature

Abstract

Van der Waals (vdW) magnet heterostructures have emerged as new platforms to explore exotic magnetic orders and quantum phenomena. Here, we study heterostructures of layered antiferromagnets, CrI3 and CrCl3, with perpendicular and in-plane magnetic anisotropy, respectively. Using magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy, we demonstrate out-of-plane magnetic order in the CrCl3 layer proximal to CrI3, with ferromagnetic interfacial coupling between the two. Such an interlayer exchange field leads to higher critical temperature than that of either CrI3 or CrCl3 alone. We further demonstrate significant electric-field control of the coercivity, attributed to the naturally broken structural inversion symmetry of the heterostructure allowing unprecedented direct coupling between electric field and interfacial magnetism. These findings illustrate the opportunity to explore exotic magnetic phases and engineer spintronic devices in vdW heterostructures.