Manifestation of long-range ordered state in layered VX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) systems

Abstract

We report the first-principles based density functional investigation of correlated magnetic behavior for the layered VX2 (X = Cl, Br, I) system both in bulk and monolayer forms. The bulk system stabilizes in the Néel 120° spin structure with the onset of long-range order at a very low temperature. However, a monolayer of the same system results in a two-dimensional long-range ordered spin-gel configuration in the a–b plane. The occurrence of this two-dimensional non-collinear long-range order for such hexagonal systems with honeycomb topology may provide an additional feature for controlling the use of such materials in magnetic memory devices.