Atomic structure, work function and magnetism in layered single crystal VOCl

Abstract

We report the successful growth of square-like layered single crystals VOCl with a size of a few millimeters by chemical vapor transport method, and demonstrate that the layered crystals show good air stability and can be easily exfoliated. The atomic-resolution structure of the VOCl single crystals is consistent with the theoretical atomic models and the exfoliated VOCl flakes exhibit a uniform surface potential and a thickness-independent work function in the interval of 4–263 nm. Further magnetic measurements manifest that the VOCl crystal exhibit an N-type ferrimagnetic phase at 150 K and a compensation temperature of ~50 K. These findings not only enrich the magnetic family in layered materials but offer a platform for exploring new physics, and such study of microstructure, air stability, work function and magnetism in layered VOCl should push further the development of functionality tunable microwave devices or spintronics with all-layered materials.

Electronic and magnetic properties of VOCl/FeOCl antiferromagnetic heterobilayers

“…In contrast, neutron scattering experiments 14,20 shows that bulk VOCl is formed by antiferromagnetically coupled monolayers with ferromagntic order, very much like CrCl 3 . 21 The Neel temperature of VOCl was reported to be 80 K. 14,20 Recently, the ferrimagnetic phase of VOCl was reported at 150 K. 22 Importantly, both FeOCl 23 and VOCl 24 are insulating.…”

“…In principle, we expect that magnetic oxides are not affected by this problem, showing good air stability in recent studies. 22 In addition, most of the work so far has focused on ferromagnetic compounds, with the notable excepction of MPS 3 (M=Mn,Fe, Ni). 28 Another reason to study these compounds comes from their lattice structure.…”

2D FeOCl: A Highly In‐Plane Anisotropic Antiferromagnetic Semiconductor Synthesized via Temperature‐Oscillation Chemical Vapor Transport

“…[4] Additionally, the atomic structure, work function, and magnetism of VOCl have been investigated. [5] Interestingly, relatively high Néel temperatures in monolayer FeOX (X = F, Cl, Br, or I) have recently been predicted by theoretical calculations, indicating that they are robust antiferromagnets. [7] Bulk FeOCl was first synthesized by Goldsztaub in 1935 [8] and it was reported to have the highest Néel temperature of 92 K among transition-metal oxyhalides.…”

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netic layered transition-metal oxyhalides in a low-symmetry orthorhombic structure provide a new degree of freedom to modulate magnetism, [3] increasing the attention to explore their low-dimensional properties. [4][5][6] Recently, magnetic superstructures and optical anisotropies have been explored in layered single-crystal CrOCl. [4] Additionally, the atomic structure, work function, and magnetism of VOCl have been investigated.

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“…[7] Bulk FeOCl was first synthesized by Goldsztaub in 1935 [8] and it was reported to have the highest Néel temperature of 92 K among transition-metal oxyhalides. [4,5,9,10] It has been widely studied, specifically for its structure, [8,11,12] intercalation, [13][14][15][16][17] magnetism, [6,9,12,18] phase transition, [18,19] and catalytic performance. [20][21][22][23] Over the past decade, various methods, including chemical vapor transport (CVT), [8,[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][24][25][26] chemical vapor deposition, [27] partial pyrolysis, [22,23,28] liquid exfoliation, [29] chemical exfoliation, [6] and rapid thermal annealing, have been developed to 2D van der Waals (vdW) transition-metal oxyhalides with low symmetry, novel magnetism, and good stability provide a versatile platform for conducting fundamental research and developi...…”