English

Tunable Magneto-Excitonic Coupling in Alloyed van der Waals Antiferromagnet

Materials Science 2026-07-16 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Abstract

The unique coupling between magnetic order and photo-generated excitons, electron-hole pairs bound by Coulomb interaction, in layered magnetic semiconductors offers a powerful mechanism for controlling light-matter interactions. In the van der Waals antiferromagnet CrSBr, this coupling is exceptionally strong and manifests distinctly between two coexisting excitonic states: the localised, Frenkel-like XA exciton and the more delocalised, Wannier-Mott-like XB exciton, providing a unique playground for the optical control of magnetism. Here, we reveal how chlorine incorporation reshapes the magneto-optical interplay in CrSBr1-xClx by simultaneously modifying its electronic structure, excitonic properties, and magnetic interactions. Combining magneto-optical spectroscopy up to 85 T with state-of-the-art quasiparticle self-consistent GW (QSGW) calculations on alloy supercells, we show that Cl insertion progressively localises the excitonic wavefunctions and drives both states toward a more Frenkel-like regime. This evolution is accompanied by a systematic reduction of the magnetic-field-induced energy renormalisation, most prominently for the XB exciton. Our work connects exciton character directly to magneto-excitonic coupling. Furthermore, it establishes compositional alloying as an effective strategy for engineering the coupling between magnetic and optical properties in van der Waals magnetic semiconductors.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.14723,
  title  = {Tunable Magneto-Excitonic Coupling in Alloyed van der Waals Antiferromagnet},
  author = {Maciej Smiertka and Oliwia Janikowska and Katarzyna Olkowska-Pucko and Grzegorz Krasucki and Katarzyna Posmyk and Paulina Peksa and Alessandro Surrente and Dimitar Pashov and Kseniia Mosina and Zdenek Sofer and Mark van Schilfgaarde and Adam Babinski and Maciej R. Molas and Gabriela Komorowska and Esteban Zamora-Amo and Andres Castellanos-Gomez and Federico Mompean and Mar Garcia-Hernandez and Michal Baranowski and Swagata Acharya and Paulina Plochocka},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.14723},
  year   = {2026}
}