Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) materials that display robust ferromagnetism have been pursued intensively for nanoscale spintronic applications, but suitable candidates have not been identified. Here we present theoretical predictions on the design of ordered double-transition-metal MXene structures to achieve such a goal. On the basis of the analysis of electron filling in transition-metal cations and first-principles simulations, we demonstrate robust ferromagnetism in Ti2MnC2Tx monolayers regardless of the surface terminations (T = O, OH, and F), as well as in Hf2MnC2O2 and Hf2VC2O2 monolayers. The high magnetic moments (3–4 μB/unit cell) and high Curie temperatures (495–1133 K) of these MXenes are superior to those of existing 2D ferromagnetic materials. Furthermore, semimetal-to-semiconductor and ferromagnetic-to-antiferromagnetic phase transitions are predicted to occur in these materials in the presence of small or moderate tensile in-plane strains (0–3%), which can be externally applied mechanically or internally induced by the choice of transition metals.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 422-428 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 5 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01Acknowledgements: This work is supported by Grant W911NF-16-1-0447 from the Army Research Office. Part of this work used the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation Grant ACI-1053575. L.D. thanks Dr. Junwen Li at National Institute of Standards and Technology for valuable discussions. B.A. was supported by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology under the KAUST-Drexel University Competitive Research Grant.
This publication acknowledges KAUST support, but has no KAUST affiliated authors.