Long range of indirect exchange interaction on the edges of MoS₂ flakes

We study the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interaction between two magnetic impurities connected to the edges of zigzag-terminated MoS₂ flakes. When the impurities lie on the edges of the flake, the effective exchange interaction exhibits sizable noncollinear Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya character that competes with a strong Ising coupling. We analyze the characteristic decay exponent for doping levels inside the band gap of the infinite layer, corresponding to edge states of the flake at the Fermi level. The characteristic exponents show sub-two-dimensional behavior for these band fillings, with decays much slower than quadratic. The Ising interaction has effectively one-dimensional long range, while the noncollinear component that grows for short impurity separation becomes comparable in magnitude. The resulting tunable exchange interaction on these systems opens the way for the study of interesting phases of impurity arrays with long-range stable helical order.