TY - JOUR
T1 - Highly Anisotropic Mechanical Response of the Van der Waals Magnet CrPS4
AU - Houmes, Maurits J.A.
AU - Mañas-Valero, Samuel
AU - Bermejillo-Seco, Alvaro
AU - Coronado, Eugenio
AU - Steeneken, Peter G.
AU - van der Zant, Herre S.J.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Semiconducting van der Waals magnets exhibit a rich physical phenomenology with different collective excitations, as magnons or excitons, that can be coupled, thereby offering new opportunities for optoelectronic, spintronic, and magnonic devices. In contrast with the well-studied van der Waals magnets CrI3 or Fe3GeTe2, CrPS4 is a layered metamagnet with a high optical and magnon transport anisotropy. Here, the structural anisotropy of CrPS4 above and below the magnetic phase transition is investigated by fabricating nanomechanical resonators. A large anisotropy is observed in the resonance frequency of resonators oriented along the crystalline a- and b-axis, indicative of a lattice expansion along the b-axis, boosted at the magnetic phase transition, and a rather small continuous contraction along the a-axis. This behavior in the mechanical response differs from that previously reported in van der Waals magnets, as FePS3 or CoPS3, and can be understood from the quasi-1D nature of CrPS4. The results pinpoint CrPS4 as a promising material in the field of low-dimensional magnetism and show the potential of mechanical resonators for unraveling the in-plane structural anisotropy coupled to the magnetic ordering that, in a broader context, can be extended to studying structural modifications in other 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures.
AB - Semiconducting van der Waals magnets exhibit a rich physical phenomenology with different collective excitations, as magnons or excitons, that can be coupled, thereby offering new opportunities for optoelectronic, spintronic, and magnonic devices. In contrast with the well-studied van der Waals magnets CrI3 or Fe3GeTe2, CrPS4 is a layered metamagnet with a high optical and magnon transport anisotropy. Here, the structural anisotropy of CrPS4 above and below the magnetic phase transition is investigated by fabricating nanomechanical resonators. A large anisotropy is observed in the resonance frequency of resonators oriented along the crystalline a- and b-axis, indicative of a lattice expansion along the b-axis, boosted at the magnetic phase transition, and a rather small continuous contraction along the a-axis. This behavior in the mechanical response differs from that previously reported in van der Waals magnets, as FePS3 or CoPS3, and can be understood from the quasi-1D nature of CrPS4. The results pinpoint CrPS4 as a promising material in the field of low-dimensional magnetism and show the potential of mechanical resonators for unraveling the in-plane structural anisotropy coupled to the magnetic ordering that, in a broader context, can be extended to studying structural modifications in other 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures.
KW - 2D materials
KW - nanomechanical resonators
KW - semiconducting van der Waals materials
KW - van der Waals magnets
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173876746&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/adfm.202310206
DO - 10.1002/adfm.202310206
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85173876746
SN - 1616-301X
VL - 34
JO - Advanced Functional Materials
JF - Advanced Functional Materials
IS - 3
M1 - 2310206
ER -