Antiferromagnetic and Electric Polarized States in Two-Dimensional Janus Semiconductor Fe2Cl3I3

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) Janus semiconductors with mirror asymmetry can introduce novel properties, such as large spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and normal piezoelectric polarization, which have attracted a great interest for their potential applications. Inspired by the recently fabricated 2D ferromagnetic (FM) semiconductor CrI3, a stable 2D (in x-y plane) antiferromagnetic (AFM) Janus semiconductor Fe2Cl3I3 with normal sublattice magnetization (m//z) is obtained by density functional theory calculations. By applying a tensile strain, the four magnetic states sequentially occur: AFM with m//z of sublattice, AFM with m//xy of sublattice, FM with m//xy, and FM with m//z. Such novel magnetic phase diagram driven by strain can be well understood by the spin-spin interactions including the third nearest-neighbor hoppings with the single-ion anisotropy, in which the SOC of I atoms is found to play an essential role. In addition, the electric polarization of Fe2Cl3I3 preserves with strain due to the broken inversion symmetry. Our results predict the rare Janus material Fe2Cl3I3 as an example of 2D semiconductors with both spin and charge polarizations, and reveal the highly sensitive strain-controlled magnetic states and magnetization direction, which highlights the 2D magnetic Janus semiconductor as a new platform to design spintronic materials.