Intrinsic magnetic properties of the layered antiferromagnet CrSBr

Abstract

van der Waals magnetic materials are an ideal platform to study low-dimensional magnetism. Opposed to other members of this family, the magnetic semiconductor CrSBr is highly resistant to degradation in air, which, in addition to its exceptional optical, electronic, and magnetic properties, is the reason the compound is receiving considerable attention at the moment. For many years, its magnetic phase diagram seemed to be well-understood. Recently, however, several groups observed a magnetic transition in magnetometry measurements at temperatures of around 40 K that is not expected from theoretical considerations, causing a debate about the intrinsic magnetic properties of the material. In this Letter, we report the absence of this particular transition in magnetization measurements conducted on high-quality CrSBr crystals, attesting to the extrinsic nature of the low-temperature magnetic phase observed in other works. Our magnetometry results obtained from large bulk crystals are in very good agreement with the magnetic phase diagram of CrSBr previously predicted by the mean-field theory; A-type antiferromagnetic order is the only phase observed below the Néel temperature at TN = 131 K. Moreover, numerical fits based on the Curie–Weiss law confirm that strong ferromagnetic correlations are present within individual layers even at temperatures much larger than TN.