Studies of KCrTe2 and Its Conversion to Easy-Peel 1T-CrTe2.

Two-dimensional ferromagnets are highly attractive for spintronic applications and chromium-telluride compounds form one of the most diverse families in this field. While the layered 1T-CrTe2 has been studied extensively for its high Curie temperature, strong anisotropy, and large magnetic moments, its parent compound KCrTe2 has received almost no systematic attention. Large crystals of KCrTe2 were grown by solid-state methods. Large 1T-CrTe2 crystals were obtained via deintercalation of K from KCrTe2. KCrTe2 exhibited an antiferromagnetic transition around 87 K, which resides between LiCrTe2 and NaCrTe2. The chemical process from KCrTe2 to 1T-CrTe2 was studied by static studies. The complete removal of K within KCrTe2 helps make 1T-CrTe2 easy fabrication of large thin flakes (the easy-peel 1T-CrTe2), which were studied using ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy (FMR). FMR was employed to study the magnetization dynamics of 1T-CrTe2 crystals, which verified that 1T-CrTe2 crystals exhibited ferromagnetic response at room temperature.