Control of magnetic states and spin interactions in bilayer CrCl3 with strain and electric fields: an ab initio study

Abstract

Using ab initio density functional theory, we demonstrated the possibility of controlling the magnetic ground-state properties of bilayer CrCl3 by means of mechanical strains and electric fields. In principle, we investigated the influence of these two fields on parameters describing the spin Hamiltonian of the system. The obtained results show that biaxial strains change the magnetic ground state between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases. The mechanical strain also affects the direction and amplitude of the magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE). Importantly, the direction and amplitude of the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya vectors are also highly tunable under external strain and electric fields. The competition between nearest-neighbor exchange interactions, MAE, and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interactions can lead to the stabilization of various exotic spin textures and novel magnetic excitations. The high tunability of magnetic properties by external fields makes bilayer CrCl3 a promising candidate for application in the emerging field of two-dimensional quantum spintronics and magnonics.