Asynchronous strategy in the nucleation of Cr2Te3@FeTex Heterolayers: Synthesis and magnetic behaviors

Abstract

With the rapid development of telluride-based two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnets, it is urgent to in-depth understanding and exploring their magnetic properties. Herein, we developed an asynchronous nucleating strategy to synthesize stacked heterolayers consisting of two magnetic transition metal tellurides (Cr2Te3 and FeTex). The synthesized heterolayers exhibit the distinct phase evolution of CrTe3-FeTe2-Fe1.125Te, which consequently leads to the magnetic behavior variation within the temperature range of 1.8–900 K. Additionally, by manipulating the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases in FeTex, an obvious exchange bias is observed at 1.8 K. This effect could be adjusted by stacked interface engineering, which provides promising tips for understanding magnetism in low-dimensional heterosystems.