David Soriano
The discovery of 2D ferromagnets in 2017 has opened new ways to explore novel physical phenomena at the nanoscale. In the first part of my talk, I will briefly discuss the recent advances in chromium trihalides, from fundamentals to applications.[1] In the second part, I will focus on our recent work regarding the role of Coulomb interactions in the intralayer exchange, the electrical tunability of interlayer magnetism in bilayer CrI3,[2] and the exchange proximity effects in van der Waals heterostructures containing chromium trihalides.[3,4] [1] Magnetic Two-Dimensional Chromium Trihalides: A Theoretical Perspective. D. Soriano, M. I. Katsnelson, and J. Fernández-Rossier. Submitted to Nano Letters.
[2] Magnetic polaron and antiferromagnetic-ferromagnetic transition in doped bilayer CrI3. D. Soriano, and M. I. Katsnelson. Phys. Rev. B 101, 041402(R) (2020) [3] Van der Waals Spin Valves. C. Cardoso, N. A. García-Martínez, and J. Fernández-Rossier. Phys. Rev. Lett. 121, 067701 (2018) [4] Exchange-bias controlled correlations in magnetically encapsulated twisted van der Waals dichalcogenides. D. Soriano, and J. L. Lado. arXiv:2006.09953


Emerging phenomena, such as the spin-Hall effect (SHE), spin pumping, and spin-transfer torque (STT), allow for interconversion between charge and spin currents and the generation of magnetization dynamics that could potentially lead to faster, denser, and more energy efficient, non-volatile memory and logic devices. Present STT-based devices rely on ferromagnetic (FM) materials as their active constituents. However, the flexibility offered by the intrinsic net magnetization and anisotropy for detecting and manipulating the magnetic state of ferromagnets also translates into limitations in terms of density (neighboring elements can couple through stray fields), speed (frequencies are limited to the GHz range), and frequency tunability (external magnetic fields needed). A new direction in the field of spintronics is to employ antiferromagnetic (AF) materials. In contrast to ferromagnets, where magnetic anisotropy dominates spin dynamics, in antiferromagnets spin dynamics are governed by the interatomic exchange interaction energies, which are orders of magnitude larger than the magnetic anisotropy energy, leading to the potential for ultrafast information processing and communication in the THz frequency range, with broadband frequency tunability without the need of external magnetic fields.