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Electrically tunable moiré magnetism in twisted double bilayers of chromium triiodide

Nature Electronics volume 6, pages 434–442 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Moiré superlattices in van der Waals structures can be used to control the electronic properties of the material and can lead to emergent correlated and topological phenomena. Non-collinear states and domain structures have previously been observed in twisted van der Waals magnets, but the effective manipulation of the magnetic behaviour remains challenging. Here we report electrically tunable moiré magnetism in twisted double bilayers—that is, a bilayer plus a bilayer with a twist angle between them—of layered antiferromagnet chromium triiodide. Using magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy, we observe the coexistence of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic order with non-zero net magnetization—a hallmark of moiré magnetism. Such a magnetic state extends over a wide range of twist angles (with transitions at around 0° and above 20°) and exhibits a non-monotonic temperature dependence. We also demonstrate voltage-assisted magnetic switching. The observed non-trivial magnetic states, as well as control via twist angle, temperature and electrical gating, are supported by a simulated phase diagram of moiré magnetism.

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Fig. 1: Moiré superlattice and STEM characterizations of tDB CrI3.
Fig. 2: Twist angle dependence of the magnetism in tDB CrI3.
Fig. 3: Temperature dependence of the magnetism in tDB CrI3.
Fig. 4: Electrical control of magnetism in tDB CrI3.
Fig. 5: Theoretical analysis of the moiré magnetism in tDB CrI3.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The computer code used in this study is available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge partial support of the work from the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, through the Quantum Science Center (QSC, a National Quantum Information Science Research Center) and Department of Defense (DOD) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives (MURI) program (FA9550-20-1-0322) for materials and device fabrication and the MOKE and TEM measurements. G.C. and Y.P.C. also acknowledge partial support from WPI-AIMR, JSPS KAKENHI Basic Science A (18H03858), New Science (18H04473 and 20H04623) and Tohoku University FRiDUO program in early stages of the research. M.M.R., A.R. and P.U. also acknowledge support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) (ECCS-1810494). Z.M. acknowledges support from the US DOE under grant DE-SC0019068 for sample synthesis. K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from the JSPS KAKENHI (grant numbers 20H00354, 21H05233 and 23H02052) and World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI), MEXT, Japan.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Avinash Rustagi

    Present address: Intel Corp., Hillsboro, OR, USA

  2. These authors contributed equally: Guanghui Cheng, Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Guanghui Cheng, Andres Llacsahuanga Allcca, Xingtao Liu, Lina Liu, Lei Fu & Yong P. Chen

  2. Purdue Quantum Science and Engineering Institute, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Guanghui Cheng, Andres Llacsahuanga Allcca, Lina Liu, Lei Fu, Pramey Upadhyaya & Yong P. Chen

  3. Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China

    Guanghui Cheng

  4. WPI-AIMR International Research Center for Materials Sciences, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

    Guanghui Cheng & Yong P. Chen

  5. Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman, Avinash Rustagi, Pramey Upadhyaya & Yong P. Chen

  6. Quantum Science Center, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    Andres Llacsahuanga Allcca, Pramey Upadhyaya & Yong P. Chen

  7. School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

    Xingtao Liu

  8. Department of Physics, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Yanglin Zhu & Zhiqiang Mao

  9. Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Kenji Watanabe

  10. International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan

    Takashi Taniguchi

  11. Institute of Physics and Astronomy and Villum Centers for Dirac Materials and for Hybrid Quantum Materials, Aarhus University, Aarhus-C, Denmark

    Yong P. Chen

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Contributions

G.C. and Y.P.C. conceived the project. G.C. fabricated the devices and performed the experiments, assisted by A.L.A. M.M.R., A.R. and P.U. performed the supporting theoretical analysis. X.L., G.C., L.L. and L.F. performed the TEM measurements. Y.Z. and Z.M. provided the bulk CrI3 crystals. K.W. and T.T. provided the bulk hBN crystals. Y.P.C. and P.U. supervised the project. G.C., M.M.R., P.U. and Y.P.C. wrote the manuscript with input from all co-authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Pramey Upadhyaya or Yong P. Chen.

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Cheng, G., Rahman, M.M., Allcca, A.L. et al. Electrically tunable moiré magnetism in twisted double bilayers of chromium triiodide. Nat Electron 6, 434–442 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-023-00978-0

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