Stacking-Dependent Interlayer Magnetic Coupling 2D CrI3/CrGeTe3 Nanostructures for Spintronics

The recent emergence of two-dimensional (2D) materials with intrinsic long-range magnetic order opens the avenue of fundamental physics studies and the spintronic application, however, the mechanism of interlayer magnetic coupling and the feasible way to control magnetic states are yet to be fully investigated. In the present study, from first principle calculations, we studied the interlayer magnetic coupling of 2D CrI3/CrGeTe3 heterostructures and revealed the stacking dependent magnetic states, it is found that AB and AB1 stacking prefers to the ferromagnetic interlayer coupling while other two stacked configurations are in ferrimagnetic state. The underlying mechanism is contributed to the competition between nearest neighbour (NN) and second nearest neighbour (SNN) Cr-Cr atoms between layers. Meanwhile, it is also found the electronic properties are stacking dependent while the band edge states are separated to the different layers. The magnetic and electronic states can be effectively tuned by the e...