Possible way to achieve anomalous valley Hall effect by piezoelectric effect in a GdCl2 monolayer

Abstract

Ferrovalley materials can achieve manipulation of the valley degree of freedom with intrinsic spontaneous valley polarization introduced by their intrinsic ferromagnetism. A good ferrovalley material should possess perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA), valence band maximum (VBM)/conduction band minimum (CBM) at valley points, strong ferromagnetic (FM) coupling and proper valley splitting. In this work, the monolayer $\mathrm{GdCl_2}$ is proposed as a potential candidate material for valleytronic applications by the first-principles calculations. It is proved that monolayer $\mathrm{GdCl_2}$ is a FM semiconductor with the easy axis along out of plane direction and strong FM coupling. A spontaneous valley polarization with a valley splitting of 42.3 meV is produced due to its intrinsic ferromagnetism and spin orbital coupling (SOC). Although the VBM of unstrained monolayer $\mathrm{GdCl_2}$ is away from valley points, a very small compressive strain (about 1\%) can make VBM move to valley points. We propose a possible way to realize anomalous valley Hall effect in monolayer $\mathrm{GdCl_2}$ by piezoelectric effect, not an external electric field, namely piezoelectric anomalous valley Hall effect (PAVHE). This phenomenon could be classified as piezo-valleytronics, being similar to piezotronics and piezophototronics. The only independent piezoelectric strain coefficient $d_{11}$ is -2.708 pm/V, which is comparable to one of classical bulk piezoelectric material $\alpha$-quartz ($d_{11}$=2.3 pm/V). The biaxial in-plane strain and electronic correlation effects are considered to confirm the reliability of our results. Finally, the monolayer $\mathrm{GdF_2}$ is predicted to be a ferrovalley material with dynamic and mechanical stabilities, PMA, VBM at valley points, strong FM coupling, valley splitting of 47.6 meV, and $d_{11}$ of 0.584 pm/V.