Highly Tunable Magnetic Phases in Transition-Metal Dichalcogenide Fe1 /3+δNbS2

Shan Wu, Zhijun Xu, Shannon C. Haley, Sophie F. Weber, Arani Acharya, Eran Maniv, Yiming Qiu, A. A. Aczel, Nicholas S. Settineri, Jeffrey B. Neaton, James G. Analytis, Robert J. Birgeneau

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Layered transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) host a plethora of interesting physical phenomena ranging from charge order to superconductivity. By introducing magnetic ions into 2H-TA2 (T=Nb, Ta; A=S, Se), the material forms a family of magnetic intercalated TMDCs MxTA2 (M=3d transition metal). Recently, Fe1/3+δNbS2 has been found to possess intriguing resistance switching and magnetic memory effects coupled to the Néel temperature of TN∼45 K [Maniv et al., Nat. Phys. 17, 525 (2021)NPAHAX1745-247310.1038/s41567-020-01123-w; Sci. Adv. 7, eabd8452 (2021)SACDAF2375-254810.1126/sciadv.abd8452]. We present comprehensive single crystal neutron diffraction measurements on underintercalated (δ∼-0.01), stoichiometric, and overintercalated (δ∼0.01) samples. Magnetic defects are usually considered to suppress magnetic correlations and, concomitantly, transition temperatures. Instead, we observe highly tunable magnetic long-ranged states as the Fe concentration is varied from underintercalated to overintercalated, that is, from Fe vacancies to Fe interstitials. The under- and overintercalated samples reveal distinct antiferromagnetic stripe and zigzag orders, associated with wave vectors k1=(0.5,0,0) and k2=(0.25,0.5,0), respectively. The stoichiometric sample shows two successive magnetic phase transitions for these two wave vectors with an unusual rise-and-fall feature in the intensities connected to k1. We ascribe this sensitive tunability to the competing next-nearest neighbor exchange interactions and the oscillatory nature of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida mechanism. We discuss experimental observations that relate to the observed intriguing switching resistance behaviors. Our discovery of a magnetic defect tuning of the magnetic structure in bulk crystals Fe1/3+δNbS2 provides a possible new avenue to implement controllable antiferromagnetic spintronic devices.

Original languageEnglish
Article number021003
JournalPhysical Review X
Volume12
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2022

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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