Is 2H-MoTe₂ an intrinsically magnetic semiconductor?

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides are currently intensively investigated due to their opto-electronic, superconducting and topological properties as well as their potential usage as mono-layer building blocks. However, despite their layered nature they often exhibit three dimensional (3D) properties in the bulk. A recently detected long-range magnetic order in semiconducting 2H-MoTe₂ was attributed to defects [1]. Here we present results of complementary spectroscopic techniques to elucidate the nature and origin of the reported magnetic order. We find that the magnetism is intrinsic with a layered-antiferromagnetic ground state. Our results also show that this magnetism remains unchanged near the surface, opening new possibilities for applications of 2H-MoTe₂ in interface engineering.

[1] Guguchia et al., Sci. Adv. 2018; 4 : eaat3672