The recent discovery of ferromagnetic single-layer CrI3 creates ample opportunities for studying fundamental properties of atomically-thin magnets. By using first-principles calculations and model analysis, we show that a lateral strain and/or charge doping can have unexpected effects on the magnetic properties of CrI3. In particular, strain tunes the magnetic order and anisotropy: (1) a compressive strain leads to a phase transition from a ferromagnetic insulator to an antiferromagnetic insulator, while (2) a tensile strain can flip the magnetic orientation from off-plane to in-plane. Interestingly, we find that the phase boundary for the first transition is insensitive to charge doping, whereas that of the second one can be significantly modulated by electron doping.
@article{arxiv.1709.05472,
title = {Tunable spin states in two-dimensional magnet CrI3},
author = {Fawei Zheng and Jize Zhao and Zheng Liu and Menglei Li and Mei Zhou and Shengbai Zhang and Ping Zhang},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.05472},
year = {2017}
}