Discovery of twin orbital-order phases in ferromagnetic semiconducting VI 3 monolayer
Spontaneous orbital symmetry breaking in crystals gives rise to abundant novel and interesting physical properties, which sometimes are concealed by the absence of geometrical distortions. We show that a recently discovered 3d2 system, namely the layered VI3 ferromagnetic semiconductor, is a strongl...
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Published in | Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP Vol. 22; no. 2; pp. 512 - 517 |
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Main Authors | , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
England
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
02.01.2020
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Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Spontaneous orbital symmetry breaking in crystals gives rise to abundant novel and interesting physical properties, which sometimes are concealed by the absence of geometrical distortions. We show that a recently discovered 3d2 system, namely the layered VI3 ferromagnetic semiconductor, is a strongly correlated and orbital ordering system. Our analysis reveals that in a VI3-like system, there could be two types of orbital splitting, which are stabilized respectively by strong electronic correlation and inter-atomic exchange interactions. Consequently, on the basis of first-principles calculations, two competing low-energy phases of VI3 monolayer (denoted as twin orbital-order phases) are discovered, in which the metal-insulator transition is driven by strong electronic correlation, and the orbital symmetry breaking is robust against geometrical distortions. In addition, similar phenomena are also observed in other VI3-like systems. These findings shed light on the unusual electronic behavior of a strongly correlated 2D system and will be interesting for nanoscale multi-functional spintronic applications. |
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Bibliography: | USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) FG02-96ER45579 |
ISSN: | 1463-9076 1463-9084 |
DOI: | 10.1039/C9CP05643B |