Evolution of magnetic phase in two dimensional van der Waals Mn\(_{1-x}\)Ni\(_x\)PS\(_3\) single crystals

• Published in: arXiv.org 2022-07
• Main Authors: Lu, Ziye, Yang, Xinyu, Huang, Lin, Chen, Xiyu, Liu, Meifeng, Peng, Jin, Dong, Shuai, Liu, Jun-Ming
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anisotropy; Antiferromagnetism; Density functional theory; Evolution; Magnetic properties; Magnetism; Manganese; Nickel; Phase separation; Phosphates; Shape; Single crystals; Spin glasses; Temperature dependence
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2207.00382

Metal thio(seleno)phosphates MPX\(_3\) have attracted considerable attentions with wide spanned band gaps and rich magnetic properties. In this series, two neighboring members MnPS\(_3\) and NiPS\(_3\) differ in magnetic atoms, magnetic easy axes, spin anisotropy, as well as nearest-neighbor magnetic interactions. The competition between these components may cause intriguing physical phenomena. In this article, the evolution of magnetism of Mn\(_{1-x}\)Ni\(_x\)PS\(_3\) series is reported. Despite the incompatible antiferromagnetic orders of two end members, the antiferromagnetism persists as the ground state in the whole substitution region. The magnetic ordering temperature \(T_{\rm N}\) show nonmonotonic V-shape behavior, and the reentrant spin glass phase at x=0.5 is observed. In addition, abnormal bifurcation of \(T_{\rm N}\) occurs at x=0.75, which may be due to the temperature-dependent spin reorientation or phase separation. The evolution of magnetism is further confirmed semi-quantitatively by our density functional theory calculations. Our study indicates that exotic magnetism can be intrigued when multi-degrees of freedom are involved in these low-dimensional systems, which call for more in-depth microscopic studies in future.