Highly Tunable Magnetic Phases in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide FexNbS2

November 22, 2022
(Left) Temperature-dependence of the normalized (0.5 0.5 0) magnetic Bragg peak intensity for the x= 0.32 sample. (Right) Phase diagram as a function of Fe ratio x around the critical value of 1/3. The magnetic ground state evolves from stripe order for x < 1/3 to coexisting stripe and zigzag orders for x ~ 1/3, and finally to zigzag order for x > 1/3.

Scientific Achievement

In the layered antiferromagnet FexNbS2, stripe or zigzag magnetic order is stabilized for samples with Fe vacancies or Fe interstitials respectively, with a narrow phase coexistence region centered around stoichiometric Fe1/3NbS2.

Significance and Impact

This work shows that the rapid current-induced resistance switching in Fe1/3NbS2, an intriguing property for future antiferromagnetic spintronics devices, arises from the competition between two magnetic states that can be manipulated by engineering magnetic defects.

Research Details

  • Neutron diffraction and bulk characterization measurements were combined to investigate the evolution of the magnetic ground state in FexNbS2 as a function of Fe-doping.

“Highly tunable magnetic phases in transition metal dichalcogenide Fe1/3+dNbS2”
Shan Wu, Zhijun Xu, Shannon Haley, Sophie Weber, Arani Acharya, Eran Maniv, Yiming Qiu, Adam Aczel, Nicholas Settineri, Jeffrey Neaton, James Analytis, and Robert Birgeneau
hysical Review X 12, 021003 (2022). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevX.12.021003