In the field of modern information storage, the physical properties could act as the storage “medium”, such as electric polarization (dipole orientation) of ferroelectric materials, or spin polarization (magnetic vector) of magnetic materials. *
Multiferroic materials have great potential in non-volatile devices for low-power and ultra-high density information storage, owing to their unique characteristic of coexisting ferroelectric and ferromagnetic orders.
However, traditional multiferroic materials are difficult to meet the development demand for potential applications due to the influence of size limit, interface effect, polarization origin, and reversal mechanism. *
Compared to the traditional systems, two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) materials exhibit obviously different and special physical properties with stable layered structures consisting of strong intralayer and weak interlayer forces. *
Nevertheless, a desirable intrinsic 2D vdW multiferroic is rare, which calls for more research for discovering new materials.
The effective manipulation of their intrinsic anisotropy makes it promising to control multiple degrees of the storage “medium”.
In the article “Electrical and magnetic anisotropies in van der Waals multiferroic CuCrP2S6”, Xiaolei Wang, Zixuan Shang, Chen Zhang, Jiaqian Kang, Tao Liu, Xueyun Wang, Siliang Chen, Haoliang Liu, Wei Tang, Yu-Jia Zeng, Jianfeng Guo, Zhihai Cheng, Lei Liu, Dong Pan, Shucheng Tong, Bo Wu, Yiyang Xie, Guangcheng Wang, Jinxiang Deng, Tianrui Zhai, Hui-Xiong Deng, Jiawang Hong and Jianhua Zhao describe how they have discovered intriguing in-plane electrical and magnetic anisotropies in van der Waals (vdW) multiferroic CuCrP2S6. The uniaxial anisotropies of current rectifications, magnetic properties and magnon modes are demonstrated and manipulated by electric direction/polarity, temperature variation and magnetic field. *
More important, the authors have discovered the spin-flop transition corresponding to specific resonance modes, and determined the anisotropy parameters by consistent model fittings and theoretical calculations. *
Their work provides in-depth investigation and quantitative analysis of electrical and magnetic anisotropies with the same easy axis in vdW multiferroics, which will stimulate potential device applications of artificial bionic synapses, multi-terminal spintronic chips and magnetoelectric devices. *
For the sample characterization Xiaolei Wang et al. used low-temperature piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) based on a closed-cycle helium cryostat. NANOSENSORS™ conductive and wear resistant Platinum-Silicide PtSi-FM AFM probes were used for the low-temperature piezoresponse force microscopy. *
Fig. 2 from “Electrical and magnetic anisotropies in van der Waals multiferroic CuCrP2S6” by Xiaolei Wang et al.:
Electrical measurements of the AFE CCPS indicating local FE polarization and electrical anisotropy.
a Phase vs voltage hysteresis loop of CCPS crystal bulk obtained at T = 2 K by PFM, after subtracting the built-in electric field between the sample and substrate. The upper inset diagram indicates the atomic structure of electric field (E) driven FE polarized state. b The microscope picture of our CCPS device with identified a and b axes, along with the scale-up configuration of electrical measurements on the right. c The rectifying J–V characteristics along the a and b axes as positive +10 V bias is poling for 3 min. d The rectification behaviors as increasing the poling voltage to 6 min or longer. e Time dependence of current density along the a and b axes as setting the poling bias +10 V. f The negative rectification along the a axis as the poling voltage is −10 V for 3 min. g The schematic diagram of physical mechanism illustrating the in-plane electrical anisotropy.
*Xiaolei Wang, Zixuan Shang, Chen Zhang, Jiaqian Kang, Tao Liu, Xueyun Wang, Siliang Chen, Haoliang Liu, Wei Tang, Yu-Jia Zeng, Jianfeng Guo, Zhihai Cheng, Lei Liu, Dong Pan, Shucheng Tong, Bo Wu, Yiyang Xie, Guangcheng Wang, Jinxiang Deng, Tianrui Zhai, Hui-Xiong Deng, Jiawang Hong and Jianhua Zhao
Electrical and magnetic anisotropies in van der Waals multiferroic CuCrP2S6
Nature Communications volume 14, Article number: 840 (2023)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36512-1
Please follow this external link to read the full article https://rdcu.be/disIW
Open Access: The article “Electrical and magnetic anisotropies in van der Waals multiferroic CuCrP2S6” by Xiaolei Wang, Zixuan Shang, Chen Zhang, Jiaqian Kang, Tao Liu, Xueyun Wang, Siliang Chen, Haoliang Liu, Wei Tang, Yu-Jia Zeng, Jianfeng Guo, Zhihai Cheng, Lei Liu, Dong Pan, Shucheng Tong, Bo Wu, Yiyang Xie, Guangcheng Wang, Jinxiang Deng, Tianrui Zhai, Hui-Xiong Deng, Jiawang Hong and Jianhua Zhao is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.