Applications In Spintronic Devices Research Articles

Structural phase transition of G-type antiferromagnetic SrMnO3 under pressure

Perovskite SrMnO3 is a versatile material with applications in transistors, supercapacitors, and spintronic devices. This study employs the DFT+U calculations to investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of two polymorphs: 4H-SrMnO3 and 3C-SrMnO3 under isotropic pressure conditions up to 60 GPa. A novel approach based on density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) is employed to precisely determine the on-site Hubbard U value, yielding a computed value of 4.552 eV, consistent with experimental reports. Below P = 14 GPa, the G-AFM phase of 4H-SrMnO3 is the most favored stable, and transitioning to the G-AFM phase of 3C-SrMnO3 beyond 14 GPa. Notably, we observed significant changes in the band gaps, exhibiting an increasing trend under isotropic pressure, while the magnetic moments of the Mn sites exhibit a decreasing trend from ≈2.8 μ B to ≈2.3 μ B for P = 0 GPa and 60 GPa, respectively. The projected density of states (PDOS) reveals the p-d hybridization contributions between the 3d-Mn and 2p-O covalent bonds, along with d-d Mott Hubbard interactions within the localized 3d orbitals of neighboring Mn-Mn atoms. Furthermore, a decrease in the Mn1-O-Mn2 distance prompts enhanced charge transfer which was facilitated by ligand holes, leading to a noticeable decrease in the magnetic moment of the Mn site in the G-AFM phase of SrMnO3.

Two-Dimensional Ultrathin Fe3Sn2 Kagome Metal with Defect-Dependent Magnetic Property.

Two-dimensional (2D) Fe3Sn2, which is a room-temperature ferromagnetic kagome metal, has potential applications in spintronic devices. However, the systematic synthesis and magnetic study of 2D Fe3Sn2 single crystals have rarely been reported. Here we have synthesized 2D hexagonal and triangular Fe3Sn2 nanosheets by controlling the amount of FeCl2 precursors in the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. It is found that the hexagonal Fe3Sn2 nanosheets exist with Fe vacancy defects and show no obvious coercivity. While the triangular Fe3Sn2 nanosheet has obvious hysteresis loops at room temperature, its coercivity first increases and then remains stable with an increase in temperature, which should result from the competition of the thermal activation mechanism and spin direction rotation mechanism. A first-principles calculation study shows that the Fe vacancy defects in Fe3Sn2 can increase the distances between Fe atoms and weaken the ferromagnetism of Fe3Sn2. The resulting 2D Fe3Sn2 nanosheets provide a new choice for spintronic devices.

Tunable Quantum Coherence of Luminescent Molecular Spins Organized via Block Copolymer Self‐Assembly

AbstractElectronic or nuclear spins represent promising candidates of qubits for applications in quantum information technologies and spintronic devices. However, it remains a challenge to achieve scalable and spatially defined organization of a large number of spins as qubits, which is essential in the feasible fabrication of quantum circuits. A strategy of block copolymer self‐assembly to organize molecular spins as qubits across molecular to micro‐/nano‐scales in polymeric films of organic luminescent radicals centered in star‐like block copolymers is reported. Scalable and spatially defined organization of the molecular spins in polymeric films with long‐range periodic ordering has not only been achieved but also controllable spin‐lattice relaxation dynamics and spin coherence lifetimes that can be finely tuned by the domain sizes and rigidities of the polymeric matrices.

Two-dimensional intrinsic ferromagnetic materials of Janus 2H-NbXY (X, Y = S, Se and Te, X ≠ Y) monolayers with high Curie temperature and large magnetic anisotropy

Two-dimensional (2D) intrinsic ferromagnetic materials with large magnetic anisotropy (MA) and high Curie temperature (TC) are desirable for low-dimensional spintronic applications. In this work, a highly stable Janus NbXY (X, Y = S, Se and Te, X ≠ Y) monolayers with intrinsic ferromagnetism is investigated by using first-principles calculations. The results demonstrate that the MAE values of the NbSSe, NbSTe and NbSeTe MLs are as high as −2.185 meV, −4.013 meV and −4.495 meV per unit cell, respectively, which is higher than the previously reported 2D intrinsic ferromagnetic materials such as FeBrI, NiI2, and VSSe MLs etc. And they are still large enough for practical applications. The Curie temperature (Tc) is estimated to be 160 K for NbSSe monolayer, 260 K for NbSTe monolayer, and 200 K for NbSeTe monolayer based on Monte Carlo simulation. The MAE and Tc could be effectively controlled and enhanced by the biaxial strains. The MAE of NbSSe, NbSTe and NbSeTe MLs can be increased by 8.7%, 24.9% and 14.1%, and reach up to −2.375, −5.015 and −5.131 meV at 5% compressive strain, respectively. Remarkably, at 5% tensile strain, the room temperature Tc of 300 K can be reached for NbSTe monolayer, which is rather promising for its practical application. The large magnetic anisotropy energy and controllable Curie temperature make the NbXY monolayers a promising candidate for applications in spintronic devices at the nanoscale and in high-density data storage.

Directional growth of iron oxide nanowires on a vicinal copper surface

Single-crystal magnetic nanostructures with well-defined shapes attract lots of interest due to their potential applications in magnetic and spintronic devices. However, development of methods allowing controlling their mutual crystallographic and geometric orientation constitutes a significant scientific challenge. One of the routes for obtaining such structures is to grow the materials epitaxially on naturally-structured supports, such as vicinal surfaces of single-crystal substrates. Iron oxides are among the most well-known magnetic materials which, depending on the phase, may exhibit ferro/ferri- or antiferromagnetic ordering. We have grown iron oxide nanowires on a Cu(410) single-crystal substrate faceted with molecular oxygen. Scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction revealed that the oxide grows in the [111] direction, along the step edges of the substrate and rotated by ±15° with respect to the [010] direction of copper atomic terraces (so that the the growing elongated structures are orientated parallel to each other). Notably, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirmed that the nanowires represent the ferrimagnetic γ-Fe2O3 (maghemite) iron oxide phase, while micromagnetic simulations indicated that the wires are single-domain, with the easy magnetization axis orientated in-plane and along the long axis of the wire.

Crystal structure, stability, and transport properties of Li2BeAl and Li2BeGa Heusler alloys: a DFT study

In this study, the structural, elastic, electronic, and thermoelectric properties of full Li2BeAl and Li2BeGa Heusler alloys were explored using density functional and the Boltzmann transport theories. The GGA and HSE approximations have been used for the exchange–correlation potential. Results indicated that these two compounds are more energetically stable in the inverse Heusler structure. Additionally, both Li2BeAl and Li2BeGa Heusler alloys were found to be mechanically stable due to the positive values of the elastic constants. Also, the high values of the Young's modulus indicate that these compounds are stiff and exhibit a semi-metallic nature. The band gaps were determined to be 0.13 eV and − 0.22 eV for Li2BeAl and Li2BeGa alloys, respectively, using the GGA approximation. By employing the HSE hybrid functional, however, the band gap for Li2BeAl increased to 0.26 eV, and for Li2BeGa, it decreased to − 0.16 eV. Regarding thermoelectric properties, Seebeck coefficient, electrical conductivity, electronic and lattice thermal conductivities, power factor, and the figure of merit have been calculated for both Li2BeAl and Li2BeGa Heusler alloys at different temperatures. Seebeck coefficient in both alloys decreases with increasing the temperature and has the highest value at 300 K. Thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity increase with increasing the temperature, which confirms the intermetallic behavior of the Heusler alloys. The results obtained for both alloys show that n-type doping has better thermoelectric properties than p-type doping. The maximum value of the figure of merit (ZT) was obtained for n-type doping, which was 1.43 at 660 K for Li2BeAl and 0.39 at 1000 K for Li2BeGa alloy. The high values of ZT especially for electron-dopped Li2BeAl suggest the great potential of this material for use in thermoelectric devices. This study suggests that the proposed materials have potential applications in spintronic devices and thermoelectric materials due to their intermetallic character and effective thermoelectric coefficients.

Tailoring polymer-based magnetoelectrics for spintronics: Evaluating the converse effect

The use of magnetoelectric (ME) materials for switching the magnetization of spintronic devices is highly attractive due to their non-volatility, high-speed operation, reduced heat dissipation, miniaturization, and scalability. Despite the numerous reports in the literature focusing on the evaluation of the direct ME effect, the converse effect remains inadequately studied. This gap in knowledge significantly hinders the development of spintronic-related applications such as magnetic sensors, data storage, quantum computing and environmental/biomedical monitoring devices. Here we demonstrate tailored mechanical (Young's Modulus of 1.2 GPa), electric (conductivity of 3.4 × 10−6 S.m−1, dielectric constant (17 at 1 kHz), magnetic saturation (≈9 emu.g−1); piezoelectric (|d33|=11 pC.N−1), and converse ME (coefficient up to 6.3 mOe.cm.V−1: the highest reported on 1–3 composites and just 1 order of magnitude lower than the ones exhibited by ceramic-based 2–2 composites) properties obtained on P(VDF-TrFE)-based composites produced by solvent-casting. This work not only assesses various magnetostrictive fillers, such as CoFe2O4, Fe3O4, and NdFeB, but also advances the development of low-voltage-induced converse magnetoelectric (ME) coupling essential for high-performance spintronic device applications.

Chiral Stacking Identification of Two-Dimensional Triclinic Crystals Enabled by Machine Learning.

Chiral materials possess broken inversion and mirror symmetry and show great potential in the application of next-generation optic, electronic, and spintronic devices. Two-dimensional (2D) chiral crystals have planar chirality, which is nonsuperimposable on their 2D enantiomers by any rotation about the axis perpendicular to the substrate. The degree of freedom to construct vertical stacking of 2D monolayer enantiomers offers the possibility of chiral manipulation for designed properties by creating multilayers with either a racemic or enantiomerically pure stacking order. However, the rapid recognition of the relative proportion of two enantiomers becomes demanding due to the complexity of stacking orders of 2D chiral crystals. Here, we report the unambiguous identification of racemic and enantiomerically pure stackings for layered ReSe2 and ReS2 using circular polarized Raman spectroscopy. The chiral Raman response is successfully manipulated by the enantiomer proportion, and the stacking orders of multilayer ReSe2 and ReS2 can be completely clarified with the help of second harmonic generation and scanning transmission electron microscopy measurements. Finally, we trained an artificial intelligent Spectra Classification Assistant to predict the chirality and the complete crystallographic structures of multilayer ReSe2 from a single circular polarized Raman spectrum with the accuracy reaching 0.9417 ± 0.0059.

Magnetic domain structures in ultrathin Bi2Te3/CrTe2 heterostructures

Abstract Chromium tellurium compounds are important two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnetic materials with high Curie temperature and chemical stability in air, which is promising for applications in spintronic devices. Here, high-quality spin-orbital-torque (SOT) device, Bi2Te3/CrTe2 heterostructure was epitaxially grown on Al2O3 (0001) substrates. Anomalous Hall measurements indicate the existence of strong ferromagnetism in this device with the CrTe2 thickness down to 10 nm. In order to investigate its micromagnetic structure, cryogenic magnetic force microscope (MFM) was utilized to measure the magnetic domain evolutions at various temperatures and magnetic fields. The virgin domain state of the device shows a worm-like magnetic domain structure with the size around 0.6 ~ 0.8 µm. Larger irregular-shape magnetic domains (＞1µm) can be induced and pinned, after the field is increased to coercive field and ramped back to low fields. The temperature-dependent MFM signals exhibit a nice mean-field-like ferromagnetic transition with Curie temperature around 201.5 K, indicating a robust ferromagnetic ordering. Such device can be potentially implemented in future magnetic memory technology.

Coupled Electronic and Magnonic Topological States in Two-Dimensional Ferromagnets.

Magnetic materials offer a fertile playground for fundamental physics discovery, with not only electronic but also magnonic topological states intensively explored. However, one natural material with both electronic and magnonic nontrivial topologies is still unknown. Here, we demonstrate the coexistence of first-order topological magnon insulators (TMIs) and electronic second-order topological insulators (SOTIs) in 2D honeycomb ferromagnets, giving rise to the nontrivial corner states being connected by the charge-free magnonic edge states. We show that, with symmetry, the phase factor ± ϕ caused by the next nearest-neighbor Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction breaks the pseudo-spin time-reversal symmetry , which leads to the split of magnon bands, i.e., the emergence of TMIs with a nonzero Chern number of , in experimentally feasible candidates of MoI3, CrSiTe3, and CrGeTe3 monolayers. Moreover, protected by the symmetry, the electronic SOTIs characterized by nontrivial corner states are obtained, bridging the topological aspect of fermions and bosons with a high possibility of innovative applications in spintronics devices.

Multifunctional features of rare-earth based perovskite-like ferrocobaltite Eu(Fe0.5Co0.5)O3

Currently, the search for new materials that allow the electronic manipulation of spin for the transport of both electric charge and spin has intensified, since their applications in spintronic devices depend on this adjustment. The aim of this work is the analysis of the crystallographic properties and their correlation with the semiconducting ferromagnetic response of the compound Eu(Fe0.5Co0.5)O3 synthesised by solid reaction. It is observed that this material crystallizes forming an orthorhombic structure (Pnma space group) with disorder in the distribution of Fe and Co ions. Optical evaluation shows a bandgap of 1.15 eV, typical in semiconductors, which is corroborated by electrical transport measurements. Magnetic characterization reveals a predominantly antiferromagnetic behaviour in the low temperature regime, while at high temperatures a soft ferromagnetic response predominates as results of super-exchange interactions between magnetic moments. First-principles electronic structure calculations suggest the occurrence of direct semiconductor-type band gap but of different value for the two orientations spin up and spin down. This result allows inferring the technological applicability of the material in devices based on polarized spin currents.

Electronic, magnetic and universality properties of room-temperature antiferromagnet Fe[formula omitted]O[formula omitted] monolayer

The previously reported X2O3 (X=V, Cr, Mn, Ta) monolayers crystallize in a honeycomb–kagome (HK) structure and are found primarily to be ferromagnetic Chern insulators with remarkable quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) properties. However, in this study, it was found that the HK Fe2O3 monolayer exhibits antiferromagnetic semiconducting properties suitable for advanced spintronics applications. Through first-principle calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we show that the Fe2O3 monolayer has good energetic, mechanical, and dynamic stability. We further evaluate the magnetic anisotropy energies (MAE) of the Fe2O3 monolayer and find that it prefers the out-of-plane easy axis magnetization direction with a sizeable MAE value of 248.75 μeV per Fe atom. Moreover, by performing Monte Carlo (MC) simulations based on the 2D classical anisotropic Heisenberg model, we predict a Néel temperature of 631.7(5) K for the Fe2O3 monolayer. We demonstrate that the Fe2O3 monolayer belongs to the 2D Ising-like universality class based on the estimated critical exponent ratios of magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, and the exponent of the correlation length. Our findings demonstrate that the Fe2O3 monolayer can be a suitable candidate for future antiferromagnetic spintronic device applications, especially in ultra-high data processing and storage, due to the coexistence of AFM and semiconducting properties.

Magnetization switching driven by spin current in a T-type ferromagnetic trilayer

The T-type CoFeB/spacer/CoFeB structure is a promising candidate for the development of perpendicular spin–orbit torque (SOT) magnetic random-access memory and other SOT devices. It consists of an in-plane magnetized layer, a perpendicularly magnetized layer, and a non-magnetic metal spacer that induces interlayer exchange coupling. By engineering the W spacer, this system achieves field-free SOT switching with a nearly 100% switching ratio. Furthermore, it realizes a high exchange coupling field of 255 Oe using a relatively thinner spacer thickness, enhancing the reliability and energy efficiency of SOT switching. Measurement of current switching probability suggests that this perpendicular magnetic anisotropy system may enable the implementation of probability-adjustable true random number generators in future applications. The T-type structures with strong interlayer coupling exhibit great potential for spintronic device applications.

Half-metallic Heusler alloy/AlP based magnetic tunnel junction

Exploring the spin transport characteristics of magnetic tunnel junctions based on half-metallic Heusler holds significance, not only in unraveling the fundamental physics at play but also in advancing applications of spintronic devices. Here, density functional theory in conjunction with non-equilibrium Green’s functions has been systematically employed to investigate two prominent Heusler alloys, Co2CrAl and CoFeCrAl, which are of direct interest to the candidates of magnetic tunnel junction. The electronic structures of two Hesler alloys reveal that both exhibit characteristics of half-metallic ferromagnets, featuring a substantial spin-down bandgap and achieving 100% spin polarization. The tunneling magnetoresistance ratios obtained for Co2CrAl/AlP/Co2CrAl and CoFeCrAl/AlP/CoFeCrAl magnetic tunnel junctions are determined to be 173% and 59%, respectively, with the former exhibiting superior device characteristics. Therefore, the Co2CrAl/AlP-based magnetic tunnel junction demonstrates ideal performance, providing new opportunities for two-dimensional spintronics.

Adjustment of ferromagnetism and improvement of the electronic structure of the TiI3 monolayer by the substitutional doping of 3d transition metal atoms: Ab-initio investigation

Two dimensional Van der Waals materials are very attractive for several researchers because of their distinctive properties and their interesting applications in data storage and spintronic devices. Titanium triiodide (TiI3), which is classified among transition metal trihalides (MX3), has received more attention after CrI3 and VI3 monolayers. Here, we explore the structural, electronic and magnetic properties of pure and 3d TM (TM = Sc, V, Cr, Mn and Fe) doped TiI3 monolayer using first-principles calculations, based on the GGA + Ueff approach. We confirmed the dynamic stability of TiI3 monolayer using phonon calculations and the thermal stability of pure and TM-doped TiI3 monolayers by performing AIMD simulation. We further found that the pure TiI3 monolayer is a stable ferromagnetic semiconductor with intrinsic magnetism. The introduction of vacancy defects in the pristine TiI3 monolayer showed that it is desirable to introduce TM atoms into Ti positions, which led to the improvement of its electronic and magnetic properties. The Sc-doped system keeps its semiconductor behavior with a reduction in the width of the band gap, whereas V-, Cr- and Fe-doped TiI3 monolayers turn into half semiconductors (HSC). Even more impressive, the Mn-doped system is found to be a bipolar ferromagnetic semiconductor (BFMS). We applied spin orbit coupling (SOC) on simulated monolayers, and showed that it affected them by changing their band gaps widths, especially in Fe-doped TiI3 monolayer. Furthermore, we found in all doped systems a ferromagnetic stability, an enhancement of the total magnetic moment, up to 10 μB in Cr- and Fe-doped monolayers, high Curie temperatures, up to 260 K, and high magnetic anisotropic energies, especially in Mn-doped TiI3 monolayer which makes it possess a long range ferromagnetic order. These interesting results concerning the electronic and magnetic properties of pure and transition metals-doped TiI3 monolayers are extremely beneficial for tune and enhance electronic and spintronic devices.

Doubly Spiro-Conjugated Chiral Carbocycles Exhibiting SOMO-HOMO Inversion in Persistent Radical Cations.

Persistent chiral organic open-shell systems have captured growing interest due to their potential applications in organic spintronic and optoelectronic devices. Nevertheless, the integration of configurationally stable chirality into an organic open-shell system continues to pose challenges in molecular design. The π-extended skeleton incorporated in spiro-conjugated carbocycles can provide robust chiroptical properties and a significant stabilization of the excited and ionic radical states. However, this approach has been relatively less explored in the design of persistent organic open-shell systems. We report here the (S,S)-, (R,R)-, and meso-isomers of doubly spiro-conjugated carbocycles featuring flat and rigid carbon-bridged para-phenylenevinylene (CPV) of different conjugation lengths connected by two spiro-carbon centers, which we denote D-spiro-CPV for its quasi-dimeric structure. Our synthetic method based on a double lithiation cyclization approach enables facile production of D-spiro-CPV. D-spiro-CPVs exhibit circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with high fluorescence quantum yields (ΦFL) resulting in a high CPL brightness of 21 M-1 cm-1 and also exhibit high thermal and photostability. The monoradical cation of D-spiro-CPV absorbing near-infrared light is notably persistent, exhibiting a half-life of 570 h under ambient conditions due to doubly spiro-conjugative stabilization. Theoretical and electrochemical studies indicate the radical cation of D-spiro-CPVs presents a non-Aufbau electron filling, exhibiting inversion of the energy level of the singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) and the highest (doubly) occupied molecular orbitals with the SOMO level even below the HOMO-1 level (double SHI effect). Our discoveries provide valuable insights into non-Aufbau molecules and the development of configurationally stable, optically active persistent radicals.

Electronic and optical properties of semiconducting BeN4 nanoribbons

Recently, a novel two-dimensional (2D) Dirac semimetal BeN4 have been successfully synthesized (Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 175,501, 2021). However, the zero bandgap of monolayer BeN4 prevents it from performing as a semiconductor in next-generation optoelectronics and electronics. Here we employ first-principles calculations to show that cutting BeN4 monolayer along zigzag direction can open moderate band gaps. The zigzag BeN4 nanoribbons with Be termination are nonmagnetic (NM) semiconductors with a moderate direct band gap and good optical absorption. The nanoribbons with edges occupied by Be and N atoms are nonmagnetic semiconductors or ferromagnetic (FM)/NM metals, and the electronic properties are closely related to the type of boundary N atoms. The configuration with both edges occupied by the pentagonal N atoms is an antiferromagnetic (AFM) semiconductor, while the system with both edges situated by hexagonal N atoms is a NM direct band gap semiconductor. If one edge is terminated by hexagonal N atoms and the other one is pentagonal N atoms, the nanoribbon will behave as a FM semiconductor. We also explore the electronic properties of zigzag BeN4 nanoribbons with hydrogen passivation. These excellent properties endow zigzag BeN4 nanoribbons with enormous potential for applications in optoelectronic and spintronic devices.

Electronic structures of skyrmionic polycrystalline MnSi thin film studied by resonance photoemission and x-ray near edge spectroscopy

Magnetic nanometric skyrmions are small complex vortex-like topological defects, mainly found in non-centrosymmetric crystals such as MnSi. They have potential applications for future spintronic devices. In this article, the structural, electronic, and magnetic states of the Mn atoms in a polycrystalline MnSi thin film facing a c-sapphire substrate were studied using x-ray diffraction, x-ray photo-emission spectroscopy, resonance photoemission spectroscopy (RPES), and extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). The valence band spectra indicate the metallic nature of the film. The RPES study reveals the presence of major itinerant Mn 3d states near EF and also the mixed Mn 3d and Si 3s–3p states from 5.3 to 11.3 eV. The EXAFS spectrum does not show the existence of oxygen vacancies in the system, and the obtained magnetic moment in the non-stoichiometric MnSi thin film is a combination of the partially itinerant and partially localized Mn 3d states.

Strain-tunable ferromagnetism in 2D non-van-der-Waals CuCr2X4 (X = S, Se)

The magnetic property of non-van-der-Waals CuCr2X4(X = S, Se) monolayer and its strain dependence are investigated systematically from first principles. The CuCr2X4 monolayers are intrinsic ferromagnetic (FM) metals, and the magnetism is mainly contributed by Cr atoms. Considerable magnetic anisotropy energy of 1.28 meV per Cr is found in CuCr2Se4 monolayer, which is one order of magnitude higher than the 0.14 meV per Cr found in CuCr2S4 monolayer. Their easy magnetization axes are along the in-plane directions, which is rare in 2D materials. By performing in-plane biaxial strain, the FM ground states of CuCr2X4 monolayers transform to antiferromagnetic (AFM) states when the compressive strain is larger than 6%, while relatively small tensile strain of 2% would induce the transition between FM and AFM for CuCr2Se4 monolayer. Moreover, we find that room-temperature Curie temperature can be realized in CuCr2X4 monolayer with appropriate tensile strain, indicating that the strained CuCr2X4 monolayer is promising in future 2D spintronic device applications and deserves further experimental exploration.

Acoustic and optical phonons in quasi-two-dimensional MPS3 antiferromagnetic semiconductors

We report the results of the investigation of the acoustic and optical phonons in quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnetic semiconductors of the transition metal phosphorus trisulfide family with Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cd as metal atoms. The Brillouin–Mandelstam and Raman light scattering spectroscopies were conducted at room temperature to measure the acoustic and optical phonon frequencies close to the Brillouin zone center and the Γ−A high symmetry direction. The absorption and index of refraction were measured in the visible and infrared ranges using the reflectometry technique. We found an intriguing large variation, over ∼28%, in the acoustic phonon group velocities in this group of materials with similar crystal structures. Our data indicate that the full-width-at-half-maximum of the acoustic phonon peaks is strongly affected by the optical properties and the electronic bandgap. The acoustic phonon lifetime extracted for some of the materials was correlated with their thermal properties. The results are important for understanding the layered van der Waals semiconductors and assessing their potential for optoelectronic and spintronic device applications.