2022, Spachmann, S., Elghandour, A., Selter, S., Büchner, B., Aswartham, S., Klingeler, R.

Cr2Ge2Te6 is a quasi-two-dimensional semiconducting van der Waals ferromagnet down to the bilayer with great potential for technological applications. Engineering the critical temperature to achieve room-temperature applications is one of the critical next steps on this path. Here, we report high-resolution capacitance dilatometry studies on Cr2Ge2Te6 single crystals which directly prove significant magnetoelastic coupling and provide quantitative values of the large uniaxial pressure effects on long-range magnetic order (∂TC/∂pc=24.7 K/GPa and ∂TC/∂pab=−15.6 K/GPa) derived from thermodynamic relations. Moderate in-plane strain is thus sufficient to strongly enhance ferromagnetism in Cr2Ge2Te6 up to room temperature. Moreover, unambiguous signs of short-range magnetic order up to 200 K are found.

2023, Ortix, Carmine, van den Brink, Jeroen

Magnetoelectric crystals have the interesting property that they allow electric fields to induce magnetic polarizations, and vice versa, magnetic fields to generate ferroelectric polarizations. Having such a magnetoelectric coupling usually requires complex types of magnetic textures, e.g., of spiraling type. Here, we establish a previously unknown approach to generate linear magnetoelectric coupling in ferromagnetic insulators with intrinsic Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). We show that the effect of nanoscale curved geometries combined with the intrinsic DMI of the magnetic shell lead to a reorganization of the magnetic texture that spontaneously breaks inversion symmetry and thereby induces macroscopic magnetoelectric multipoles. Specifically, we prove that structural deformation in the form of controlled ripples activates a magnetoelectric monopole in the recently synthesized two-dimensional magnets. We also demonstrate that in zigzag-shaped ferromagnetic wires in planar architectures, a magnetic toroidal moment triggers direct linear magnetoelectric coupling.