Defect Engineering

Two-dimensional magnetic van der Waals materials have shown remarkable quantum properties that could be utilized to fabricate next generation nanodevices. A candidate from the family of antiferromagnetic transition metal phosphorus trisulfides, NiPS₃, exhibits strong correlation between electronic (charge) and magnetic (spin) structure that results from long-range superexchange interactions mediated by sulfur atoms. These systems provide an opportunity to manipulate magnetic interactions and hence, alter key intrinsic properties of the material. I conducted the magnetic characterization of composition-tunable few-layered Ni_1-xCo_xPS₃ (0≤x<0.50) nanosheets (NSs) to explore the effect of sulfur vacancies on the magnetic ordering . The increase in sulfur vacancy concentration effectively suppressed the strong antiferromagnetic correlation and a weak ferromagnetic ground state emerged at low temperatures (< 100 K). These findings present a correlation between the magnetic ordering and chalcogen vacancies in transition metal phosphorus trisulfides, providing an opportunity to explore other competing correlated states by defect engineering.

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