How magnetism emerges in low-dimensional materials such as transition metal dichalcogenides at the monolayer limit is still an open question. Herein, we present a comprehensive study of the magnetic properties of single crystal and monolayer VSe2, both experimentally and \emph{ab initio}. Magnetometry, X-ray magnetic circular dichrosim (XMCD) and \emph{ab initio} calculations demonstrate that the charge density wave in bulk stoichiometric VSe2.0 causes a structural distortion with a strong reduction in the density of sates at the Fermi level, prompting the system towards a non-magnetic state but on the verge of a ferromagnetic instability. In the monolayer limit, the structural rearrangement induces a Peierls distortion with the opening of an energy gap at the Fermi level and the absence of magnetic order. Control experiments on defect-induced VSe2−δ single crystals show a breakdown of magnetism, discarding vacancies as a possible origin of magnetic order in VSe2.
@article{arxiv.1907.02034,
title = {Absence of ferromagnetism in VSe$_2$ caused by its charge density wave phase},
author = {Adolfo O. Fumega and M. Gobbi and P. Dreher and W. Wan and C. González-Orellana and M. Peña-Díaz and C. Rogero and J. Herrero-Martín and P. Gargiani and M. Ilyn and M. M. Ugeda and Victor Pardo and S. Blanco-Canosa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1907.02034},
year = {2020}
}