Modulating Anisotropic Magnetism of Layered CuCrP$_{2}$S$_{6}$ Single Crystal via Selenium Substitution

Abstract

As one of typical layered structures, antiferromagnetic CuCrP$_{2}$S$_{6}$ single crystal has high potential for magnetoelectric devices and spintronic multi-terminal chips due to its unique magnetic anisotropy. However, to tune the anisotropic magnetism is still challenge. Herein, high quality single crystals of CuCrP$_{2}$(S$_{1-X}$Se$_{X}$)$_{6}$ (where X=0, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, and 0.2) were grown via chemical vapor transport route, and the effect of selenium substitutions on the magnetic anisotropies in CuCrP$_{2}$S$_{6}$ were systematically investigated. The magnetic anisotropic results measured in normal and parallel directions between the crystallographic plane (\textbf{ab}) and the applied magnetic field (\textbf{H}) showed that the N\'eel temperatures (T$_{N}$) and temperatures at maximum magnetic susceptibilities (T$_{Max}$) in \textbf{H}$\perp$\textbf{ab} and \textbf{H}$\parallel$\textbf{ab} decreased with increasing the selenium doping amounts in CuCrP$_{2}$(S$_{1-X}$Se$_{X}$)$_{6}$ single crystals. Notably, their anisotropic behavior in paramagnetic phase tends to be isotropic with increasing selenium concentrations. Moreover, the transitions of the spin flop, which appear only in case of \textbf{H}$\perp$\textbf{ab}, was greatly suppressed with increasing the selenium concentrations in CuCrP$_{2}$(S$_{1-X}$Se$_{X}$)$_{6}$ until disappearing at X=0.1 and 0.2. The spin polarized density functional theory calculations further confirmed that the asymmetry between spin up and spin down states in CuCrP$_{2}$S$_{6}$ could be highly modulated via Se substitution, resulting in the tunable anisotropic magnetism of hybridized CuCrP$_{2}$(S$_{1-X}$Se$_{X}$)$_{6}$. Our findings make these materials to be more interesting in spintronic applications.