Amorphous Ferromagnetic Metal in van der Waals Materials

Abstract

Amorphous solids are non-equilibrium states of matter that lack long-range structural order, and are recognized as key materials in electronics. Although 2D van der Waals materials have been intensively studied in the wide field of materials science, their amorphous states have been less studied experimentally. Here, a van der Waals ferromagnetic semiconductor CrGeTe3 transforms into an amorphous ferromagnetic metal upon irradiation with high-energy Xe ions. Notably, the Curie temperature of the amorphous state reaches 200 K, which is three times higher than that of the crystalline phase. The anomalous Hall conductivity in the amorphous phase is governed by the extrinsic skew-scattering mechanism, although conventional theory predicts that skew scattering is dominant only in ultra-clean ferromagnetic metals. The present results call for a new theory of the anomalous Hall effect in highly disordered ferromagnetic conductors. Moreover, the unique change in magnetic and transport properties due to amorphization of the van der Waals material is expected to open up a new research field in materials science.