Electronic structure of monolayer-CrTe$_2$: an antiferromagnetic 2D van der Waals material

TL;DR

This study investigates the electronic and magnetic properties of monolayer CrTe₂, a 2D van der Waals material, using advanced spectroscopic techniques and theoretical modeling to understand its potential for spintronic applications.

Contribution

The paper combines experimental spectroscopic techniques with theoretical calculations to determine the magnetic ground state and electronic structure of monolayer CrTe₂.

Findings

Monolayer CrTe₂ exhibits an antiferromagnetic ground state.

The electronic band structure is well described by DFT+U with U=2.5 eV.

Spectroscopic data confirms the theoretical predictions.

Abstract

Magnetic van der Waals materials are an important building block to realize spintronic functionalities in heterostructures of two-dimensional (2D) materials. Yet, establishing their magnetic and electronic properties and the interrelationship between the magnetic ground state and electronic structure is often challenging because only a limited number of techniques can probe magnetism and electronic structure on length scales of tens to hundreds of nanometers. Chromium chalcogenides are a class of 2D magnetic materials for which a rich interplay between structure and magnetism has been predicted. Here, we combine angle-resolved photoemission and quasi-particle interference imaging to establish the electronic structure of a monolayer of CrTe$_2$ on graphite. From a comparison of model calculations with spectroscopic mapping using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and scanning tunnelling microscopy we establish the magnetic ground state and the low energy electronic structure. We demonstrate that the band structure of monolayer CrTe$_2$ is captured well by density functional theory (DFT) in a DFT+U framework when a Coulomb repulsion of $U=2.5\mathrm{eV}$ is accounted for.