journal article·2023-05Open access

Anisotropic Excitons Reveal Local Spin Chain Directions in a van der Waals Antiferromagnet

Dong Seob Kim, Di Huang, Chunhao Guo, Kejun Li, Dario Rocca, Frank Y. Gao, Jeongheon Choe, David Lujan, Ting‐Hsuan Wu, Kung‐Hsuan Lin, Edoardo Baldini, Li Yang, Shivani Sharma, Raju Kalaivanan, Raman Sankar, Shang‐Fan Lee, Yuan Ping, Xiaoqin Li

Advanced Materials· Volume 35· Issue 19

Abstract

Abstract A long‐standing pursuit in materials science is to identify suitable magnetic semiconductors for integrated information storage, processing, and transfer. Van der Waals magnets have brought forth new material candidates for this purpose. Recently, sharp exciton resonances in antiferromagnet NiPS 3 have been reported to correlate with magnetic order, that is, the exciton photoluminescence intensity diminishes above the Néel temperature. Here, it is found that the polarization of maximal exciton emission rotates locally, revealing three possible spin chain directions. This discovery establishes a new understanding of the antiferromagnet order hidden in previous neutron scattering and optical experiments. Furthermore, defect‐bound states are suggested as an alternative exciton formation mechanism that has yet to be explored in NiPS 3 . The supporting evidence includes chemical analysis, excitation power, and thickness dependent photoluminescence and first‐principles calculations. This mechanism for exciton formation is also consistent with the presence of strong phonon side bands. This study shows that anisotropic exciton photoluminescence can be used to read out local spin chain directions in antiferromagnets and realize multi‐functional devices via spin‐photon transduction.
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Research context

OpenAlex topics: 2D Materials and Applications · Electronic and Structural Properties of Oxides · Advanced Memory and Neural Computing

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Department of Physics and Center for Complex Quantum Systems The University of Texas at Austin Austin TX 78712 USA

Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials and Texas Materials Institute The University of Texas at Austin Austin TX 78712 USA

MOE Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro‐Structured Materials, Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Digital Optics Institute of Precision Optical Engineering, and School of Physics Science and Engineering Tongji University 1239 Siping Road Shanghai 200092 China

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of California Santa Cruz CA 95064 USA

Department of Physics University of California Santa Cruz CA 95064 USA

Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie Théoriques (LPCT) Université de Lorraine, UMR 7019 CNRS Nancy F‐54000 France

Institute of Physics Academia Sinica Taipei 11529 Taiwan

Department of Physics and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering Washington University St. Louis MO 63130 USA

Funding

Air Force Research Laboratory · Basic Energy Sciences · Welch Foundation · National Science Foundation · Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan · Academia Sinica · Brookhaven National Laboratory

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