Control of magnetic states and spin interactions in bilayer CrCl$_{3}$ with strain and electric fields: an ab initio study

TL;DR

This study uses ab initio DFT calculations to show how mechanical strain and electric fields can precisely control the magnetic states and interactions in bilayer CrCl₃, enabling potential applications in 2D spintronics.

Contribution

It demonstrates the tunability of magnetic ground states, anisotropy, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions in bilayer CrCl₃ through external mechanical and electric stimuli, a novel insight.

Findings

Strain switches magnetic ground state between FM and AFM.

Strain and electric fields modulate magnetic anisotropy and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya vectors.

External fields enable stabilization of exotic spin textures.

Abstract

Using ab initio density functional theory (DFT), we demonstrated the possibility of controlling the magnetic ground-state properties of bilayer CrCl$_{3}$ by means of mechanical strains and electric fields. In principle, we investigated the influence of these two fields on parameters describing the spin Hamiltonian of the system. The obtained results show that biaxial strains change the magnetic ground state between ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases. The mechanical strain also affects the direction and amplitude of the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy (MAE). Importantly, the direction and amplitude of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya vectors are also highly tunable under external strain and electric fields. The competition between nearest neighbor interaction, MAE, and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions can lead to the stabilization of various exotic spin textures and novel magnetic excitations. The high tunability of magnetic properties by external fields makes bilayer CrCl$_{3}$ a promising candidate for application in the emerging field of two-dimensional quantum spintronics and magnonics.