Monolayer Magnetic Metal with Scalable Conductivity

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a monolayer 2D magnetic metal, GdAlSi, that maintains metallic conductivity at the monolayer limit, with scalable conductance and potential for electronic applications.

Contribution

It introduces GdAlSi as a scalable, metallic 2D magnetic material that remains conductive at monolayer thickness, overcoming a key challenge in 2D magnet design.

Findings

GdAlSi remains metallic at monolayer thickness.

Sheet conductance scales linearly with the number of layers.

GdAlSi can be epitaxially integrated with silicon for electronics.

Abstract

2D magnets have emerged as a class of materials highly promising for studies of quantum phenomena and applications in ultra-compact spintronics. Current research aims at design of 2D magnets with particular functional properties. A formidable challenge is to produce metallic monolayers: the material landscape of layered magnetic systems is strongly dominated by insulators; rare metallic magnets, such as Fe3GeTe2, become insulating as they approach the monolayer limit. Here, electron transport measurements demonstrate that the recently discovered 2D magnet GdAlSi - graphene-like AlSi layers coupled to layers of Gd atoms - remains metallic down to a single monolayer. Band structure analysis indicates the material to be an electride, which may stabilize the metallic state. Remarkably, the sheet conductance of 2D GdAlSi is proportional to the number of monolayers - a manifestation of scalable conductivity. The GdAlSi layers are epitaxially integrated with silicon, facilitating applications in electronics.