Interlayer coupling controlled electronic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional VOCl2/PtTe2 van der Waals heterostructure

Abstract

The coupling of hetero monolayers into van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures has become an effective way to obtain tunable physical and chemical properties of two dimensional (2D) materials. In this work, based on first principles calculations, we systematically explore the electronic and magnetic properties of a 2D VOCl₂/PtTe₂ heterostructure. Our results indicate that the ground state of the VOCl₂/PtTe₂ heterostructure is a ferromagnetic (FM) metal with large magnetic anisotropy energy, among which, the VOCl₂ “sublayer” shows FM half metallic properties while the PtTe₂ “sublayer” shows nonmagnetic metallic properties. The Curie temperature (T_C) of VOCl₂/PtTe₂ is 111 K. Moreover, the FM–antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase transition can be obtained under biaxial strain. Our work provides an effective way to improve the performance of 2D monolayers in nano-electronic devices.