Nanomechanical probing and strain tuning of the Curie temperature in suspended Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ heterostructures

Kavli Affiliate: Herre S. J. Van Der Zant

| First 5 Authors: Makars Šiškins, Samer Kurdi, Martin Lee, Benjamin J. M. Slotboom, Wenyu Xing

| Summary:

Two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials with strong magnetostriction are
interesting systems for strain-tuning the magnetization, enabling potential for
realizing spintronic and nanomagnetic devices. Realizing this potential
requires understanding of the magneto-mechanical coupling in the 2D limit. In
this work, we suspend thin Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ layers, creating nanomechanical
membrane resonators. We probe its mechanical and magnetic properties as a
function of temperature and strain. Pronounced signatures of magneto-elastic
coupling are observed in the temperature-dependent resonance frequency of these
membranes near $T_{rm C}$. We further utilize Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ in
heterostructures with thin layers of WSe$_2$ and FePS$_3$, which have positive
thermal expansion coefficients, to compensate the negative thermal expansion
coefficient of Cr$_2$Ge$_2$Te$_6$ and quantitatively probe the corresponding
$T_{rm C}$. Finally, we induce a strain of $0.016%$ in a suspended
heterostructure via electrostatic force and demonstrate a resulting enhancement
of $T_{rm C}$ by $2.5 pm 0.6$ K in the absence of an external magnetic field.

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