Nature of 2D XY antiferromagnetism in a van der Waals monolayer

Two-dimensional antiferromagnetism has long attracted significant interest in many areas of condensed matter physics, but only recently has experimental exploration become feasible due to the isolation of van der Waals antiferromagnetic monolayers. Probing the magnetic phase diagram of these monolayers remains however challenging because established experimental techniques often lack the required sensitivity. Here, we investigate antiferromagnetism in atomically thin van der Waals magnet NiPS₃ using magnetotransport measurements in field-effect transistor devices. Temperature-dependent conductance and magnetoresistance data reveal a distinct magnetic behavior in monolayers as compared to thicker samples. While bilayer and multilayer NiPS₃ exhibit a single magnetic phase transition into a zig-zag antiferromagnetic state driven by uniaxial anisotropy, monolayer NiPS₃ undergoes two magnetic transitions, with a low-temperature phase governed by in-plane hexagonal magnetic anisotropy. The experimentally constructed phase diagram for monolayer NiPS₃ matches theoretical predictions from the six-state clock and 2D-XY models incorporating hexagonal anisotropy.