Room Temperature Uniaxial Magnetic Anisotropy Induced By Fe-Islands in the InSe Semiconductor Van Der Waals Crystal

Adv Sci (Weinh). 2018 May 11;5(7):1800257. doi: 10.1002/advs.201800257. eCollection 2018 Jul.

Abstract

The controlled manipulation of the spin and charge of electrons in a semiconductor has the potential to create new routes to digital electronics beyond Moore's law, spintronics, and quantum detection and imaging for sensing applications. These technologies require a shift from traditional semiconducting and magnetic nanostructured materials. Here, a new material system is reported, which comprises the InSe semiconductor van der Waals crystal that embeds ferromagnetic Fe-islands. In contrast to many traditional semiconductors, the electronic properties of InSe are largely preserved after the incorporation of Fe. Also, this system exhibits ferromagnetic resonances and a large uniaxial magnetic anisotropy at room temperature, offering opportunities for the development of functional devices that integrate magnetic and semiconducting properties within the same material system.

Keywords: InSe; electron spin resonance (ESR); iron; magnetic anisotropy; van der Waals semiconductors.