Probing magnetism in atomically thin semiconducting PtSe2

• Published in: Nature communications 2020-09, Vol.11 (1), p.4806-4806, Article 4806
• Main Authors: Avsar, Ahmet, Cheon, Cheol-Yeon, Pizzochero, Michele, Tripathi, Mukesh, Ciarrocchi, Alberto, Yazyev, Oleg V., Kis, Andras
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/301/357/1018; 639/766/119; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18521-6

Atomic-scale disorder in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides is often accompanied by local magnetic moments, which can conceivably induce long-range magnetic ordering into intrinsically non-magnetic materials. Here, we demonstrate the signature of long-range magnetic orderings in defective mono- and bi-layer semiconducting PtSe 2 by performing magnetoresistance measurements under both lateral and vertical measurement configurations. As the material is thinned down from bi- to mono-layer thickness, we observe a ferromagnetic-to-antiferromagnetic crossover, a behavior which is opposite to the one observed in the prototypical 2D magnet CrI 3 . Our first-principles calculations, supported by aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy imaging of point defects, associate this transition to the interplay between the defect-induced magnetism and the interlayer interactions in PtSe 2 . Furthermore, we show that graphene can be effectively used to probe the magnetization of adjacent semiconducting PtSe 2 . Our findings in an ultimately scaled monolayer system lay the foundation for atom-by-atom engineering of magnetism in otherwise non-magnetic 2D materials. Beneficiary defects could be utilized to introduce magnetism into materials that are not intrinsically magnetic. Here, the authors demonstrate long range magnetic order in the air-stable, defective Platinum Diselenide in the ultimate limit of thickness by using proximitized graphene as a probe.