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Strong in-plane optical anisotropy in 2D van der Waals antiferromagnet VOCl

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Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) magnetic materials with strong in-plane anisotropy can make possible novel applications such as optospintronics and strain sensors. In this work, the strong in-plane optical anisotropy in 2D vdW antiferromagnet VOCl has been systematically investigated. The optical brightness and absorption coefficient exhibit evident periodic variation with the change of incident polarization, unveiling the strong in-plane anisotropic optical absorption. The Raman intensity in this material shows obvious dependence on the polarization angle of incident laser, demonstrating that the phonon properties possess strong in-plane anisotropy. Besides, we have also realized in-situ visualization of in-plane optical reflection anisotropy in this material. Moreover, the strong second harmonic generation (SHG) signal can only be detected when the incident polarization is along specific in-plane crystal orientations, illustrating the presence of strong in-plane nonlinear optical anisotropy. These findings will benefit the applications of VOCl in the field of polarization-dependent electronics and spintronics.

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Acknowledgements

S. X. Y. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 51972007).

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Author notes

  1. Tianle Zhang and Jiantao Du contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    Tianle Zhang, Jiantao Du, Shengxue Yang & Chengbao Jiang

  2. Anhui Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics at Extreme Conditions High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

    Wenjun Wang & Zhe Qu

  3. Science Island Branch of Graduate School, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Wenjun Wang

  4. CAS Key Laboratory of Standardization and Measurement for Nanotechnology CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, Beijing, 100190, China

    Keming Wu, Shuai Yue & Xinfeng Liu

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shuai Yue

  6. State Key Laboratory of Precision Measuring Technology and Instruments, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072, China

    Wanfu Shen & Chunguang Hu

  7. College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, MinJiang University, Fuzhou, 350108, China

    Minghui Wu

  8. Fujian Key laboratory of Functional marine Sensing materials, Minjiang University, Fuzhou, 350108, China

    Minghui Wu

Authors
  1. Tianle Zhang
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  10. Zhe Qu
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  11. Shengxue Yang
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  12. Chengbao Jiang
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Correspondence to Shengxue Yang or Chengbao Jiang.

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Zhang, T., Du, J., Wang, W. et al. Strong in-plane optical anisotropy in 2D van der Waals antiferromagnet VOCl. Nano Res. 16, 7481–7488 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5358-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-022-5358-0

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