Emergent magnetic properties at 2D material/hexagonal oxide interface

It was recently found that collinear or non-collinear magnetic moments can be induced in monolayer or few-layer 2D materials by magnetic bulk substrates. For example, it was shown that Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), which are responsible for spin canting in materials, are induced in 2D layers by a Co substrate. The hexagonal phase of LuFeO₃ (h-LFO) is multiferroic with a huge out-of-plane polarization and strong DMI, whereby h-LFO is a suitable material for such heterostructures. In this work we explore possible emergent multifunctionality in 2D polar materials like MnSSe (Janus structure), grown on h-LFO and Hf doped h-LFO. We previously showed that Hf doping can tune the magnetism between non-collinear and collinear spin configurations by tuning its DMI. Hence, the resulting 2D-material/h-LFO may lead to induction of DMI in the 2D layer with potential for other interesting magnetic properties. The goal is to design a heterostructure with tunable magnetic spin configurations by tuning the polarization of the substrate and the 2D material. Tuning and switching the polarization of h-LFO and Hf-doped h-LFO affects the DMI and Magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of the polar 2D material, which can lead to tuneable magnetic skyrmions on the 2D materials.