Enhanced Room Temperature Ferromagnetism in Highly Strained 2D Semiconductor Cr₂Ge₂Te₆

Emergent magnetism in van der Waals materials offers exciting opportunities in fabricating atomically thin spintronic devices. One pertinent obstacle has been the low transition temperatures (T_c) inherent to these materials, precluding room temperature applications. Here, we show that large structural gradients found in highly strained nanoscale wrinkles in Cr₂Ge₂Te₆ (CGT) lead to significant increases of T_c. Magnetic force microscopy was utilized in characterizing multiple strained CGT nanostructures leading to experimental evidence of elevated T_c, depending on the strain percentage estimated from finite element analysis. Our findings are further supported by ab initio and DFT studies of the strained material, which indicates that strain directly augments the ferromagnetic coupling between Cr atoms in CGT, influenced by superexchange interaction; this provides strong insight into the mechanism of the enhanced magnetism and T_c.