Probing Short-Range Correlations in the van der Waals Magnet CrSBr by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering
Andrey Rybakov (Universitat de València)
Carla Boix-Constant (Universitat de València)
Diego Alba Venero (ISIS Neutron and Muon Source)
Herre S.J. van der Zant (TU Delft - QN/van der Zant Lab, Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft)
Samuel Mañas-Valero (Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft, TU Delft - QN/van der Zant Lab, TU Delft - QN/vanderSarlab)
Eugenio Coronado (Universitat de València)
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Abstract
The layered metamagnet CrSBr offers a rich interplay between magnetic, optical, and electrical properties that can be extended down to the two-dimensional (2D) limit. Despite the extensive research regarding the long-range magnetic order in magnetic van der Waals materials, short-range correlations have been loosely investigated. By using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) the formation of short-range magnetic regions in CrSBr with correlation lengths that increase upon cooling up to ≈3 nm at the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature (T N ≈ 140 K) is shown. Interestingly, these ferromagnetic correlations start developing below 200 K, i.e., well above T N. Below T N, these correlations rapidly decrease and are negligible at low-temperatures. The experimental results are well-reproduced by an effective spin Hamiltonian, which pinpoints that the short-range correlations in CrSBr are intrinsic to the monolayer limit, and discard the appearance of any frustrated phase in CrSBr at low-temperatures within the experimental window between 2 and 200 nm. Overall, the obtained results are compatible with a spin freezing scenario of the magnetic fluctuations in CrSBr and highlight SANS as a powerful technique for characterizing the rich physical phenomenology beyond the long-range order paradigm offered by van der Waals magnets.
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