Above Room Temperature Ferromagnetism in Gd2B2 Monolayer with High Magnetic Anisotropy

The realization of 2D ultrathin crystals with a ferromagnetic ground state that is sustainable at room temperature has been a real challenge now. By combining ab initio density functional theory with Monte Carlo simulations, we predicted a new 2D structure, Gd2B2 monolayer, which maintains its mechanical stability at elevated temperatures. More remarkably, it has a ferromagnetic ground state with high permanent magnetic moment, which persists far above room temperature. It exhibits high magnetocrystalline anisotropy along particular directions. We find also that both its magnetic anisotropy and Curie temperature can largely be altered by applied strain providing an excellent magnetoelastic tunability. This novel 2D crystal with high magnetic moment and Curie temperature combined with high structural and thermal stability can offer critical applications in magnetoelectronics

Magnetization of silicene via coverage with gadolinium: Effects of thickness, symmetry, strain, and coverage

When covered by gadolinium (Gd) atoms, silicene, a freestanding monolayer of Si atoms in a honeycomb network, remains stable above the room temperature and becomes a two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic semiconductor, despite the antiferromagnetic ground state of three-dimensional bulk GdSi2 crystal. In thin GdSi2 multilayers, even if magnetic moments are ordered parallel in the same Gd atomic planes, they are antiparallel between nearest Gd planes; hence they exhibit a ferrimagnetic behavior. In contrast, a freestanding Gd2Si2 monolayer constructed by covering silicene from both sides by Gd atoms is a stable antiferromagnetic metal due to the mirror symmetry. While multilayers covered by Gd from both sides having an odd number of Gd planes have a ferrimagneticlike ground state, even-numbered ones have antiferromagnetic ground state, but none of them is ferromagnetic. Silicon atoms intervening between Gd planes are responsible for these intriguing magnetic orders conforming with the recent experiments performed on Si(111) surface. Additionally, the magnetic states of these 2D gadolinium disilicide monolayers can be monitored by applied tensile strain and by the coverage/decoration of Gd. These predictions obtained by using first-principles, spin-polarized, density functional theory calculations combined with Monte Carlo simulations herald that C, B, Si, Ge, Sn, and their compounds functionalized by rare-earth atoms can lead to novel nanostructures in 2D spintronics

Columnar antiferromagnetic order of a MBene monolayer

First-principles density functional theory, combined with the Monte Carlo method, predicts that the Fe2B2 monolayer of the MBene family has a stable columnar antiferromagnetic (AFM) ground state. Below the critical temperature, T-c = 115 K in equilibrium, the spins rotate by the same amount in every other column of Fe atoms, but they retain the same direction in the same column. Under applied tensile strains, T-c and the order parameter can increase nonmonotonically. The onset of the columnar order can result in a transition from two dimension (2D) to 1D in magnetic, electronic, and conduction properties. The ordered magnetic state itself can be tuned by external magnetic field, whereby the columnar magnetic order changes to ferromagnetic order with a double hysteresis behavior. When terminated by Fluorine atoms, the columnar order changes to the AFM order with T-c rising above room temperature. This situation is rather unusual and insofar is fundamental for a realistic, strictly 2D monolayer and can have critical consequences in spin conduction