Ho-Pb Monolayers With Kagome and Striped Structures

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Condensed Matter Physics
• Spintronics

Background:

• Scaling down electronic and magnetic phases to the monolayer limit reveals emergent effects crucial for spintronic devices.
• Two-dimensional (2D) materials offer unique platforms for exploring novel quantum phenomena.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report the epitaxial synthesis of a 2D Pb-based kagome monolayer, holmium lead (HoPb3).
• To propose a method for engineering periodic structures with alternating HoPb3 and Pb stripes.
• To investigate the electronic and magnetic properties of these 2D and quasi-1D phases for spintronic applications.

Main Methods:

• Epitaxial synthesis of 2D HoPb3 kagome monolayer.
• Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to predict electronic and magnetic structures.
• Analysis of band structures for Van Hove singularities and spin polarization.

Main Results:

• Successful synthesis of 2D HoPb3 kagome monolayer and engineered striped phases.
• Both phases exhibit Rashba-like spin polarization and Van Hove singularities, indicating potential for strong electronic correlations.
• DFT predicts an unusual in-plane antiferromagnetic alignment of Ho magnetic moments with out-of-plane spin polarization, resulting in ferrimagnetic behavior.
• The striped phase shows characteristics of a 1D Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid.

Conclusions:

• The synthesized 2D HoPb3 kagome monolayer and striped phases possess unique electronic and magnetic properties.
• These materials offer a versatile approach to control anisotropy in low-dimensional systems.
• The findings facilitate the development of tunable spintronic devices.