English

Magnetic structure and phase stability of the van der Waals bonded ferromagnet Fe3-xGeTe2

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2016-01-13 v3 Materials Science

Abstract

The magnetic structure and phase diagram of the layered ferromagnetic compound Fe3_3GeTe2_2 has been investigated by a combination of synthesis, x-ray and neutron diffraction, high resolution microscopy, and magnetization measurements. Single crystals were synthesized by self-flux reactions, and single crystal neutron diffraction finds ferromagnetic order with moments of 1.11(5)μB\mu_B/Fe aligned along the cc-axis at 4K. These flux-grown crystals have a lower Curie temperature TcT_{\textrm{c}}\approx150K compared to crystals previously grown by vapor transport (TcT_{\textrm{c}}=220K). The difference is a reduced Fe content in the flux grown crystals, as illustrated by the behavior observed in a series of polycrystalline samples. As Fe-content decreases, so does the Curie temperature, magnetic anisotropy, and net magnetization. In addition, Hall effect and thermoelectric measurements on flux-grown crystals suggest multiple carrier types contribute to electrical transport in Fe3x_{3-x}GeTe2_2 and structurally-similar Ni3x_{3-x}GeTe2_2.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1508.06959,
  title  = {Magnetic structure and phase stability of the van der Waals bonded ferromagnet Fe3-xGeTe2},
  author = {Andrew F. May and Stuart Calder and Claudia Cantoni and Huibo Cao and Michael A. McGuire},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1508.06959},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

accepted version to be published in PRB; corrections made, includes Supplemental information