Executive Summary : | This project proposal is aimed at designing and growing high quality single crystals of transition metals (Fe, Co, Ni, Mn) and chalcogen (s, Te) based two-dimensional van der Waals magnetic (2D-vdW) materials by chemical vapor transport method and investigating structural, electronic and anisotropic physical properties of the grown crystals. Materials research over last few decades offered various new classes of materials having rich variety of physics such as magnetoresistivity, multiferroic, spin glass, spin liquid, spin ice, coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism, heavy Fermion, Kondo effect, topological state, etc. Among multifunctional materials, two-dimensional materials attract special attention to researchers over a decade due to their technological applications in miniaturization in spintronic and nanoelectronic devices. 2D layered materials are class of materials in which planes of layers are attached to each other by a weak force, known as van der Waals force. Discovery of graphene as 2D-vdW materials opened doors for stimulus research in the field of lower dimensional materials. Main work in this proposed project proposal is purely experimental in nature. However, experimental observations will be explained in the framework of theoretical models. In this proposed project work structure-property correlation will be investigated by probing intrinsic anisotropic magnetism and other physical properties. Novelty of this project proposal lies in the design, discovery and growth of new transition metals-based magnetic van der Waals materials and investigations of their anisotropic physical properties. Few 2D vdW materials, for example, Fe3GeTe2 is known to exhibit exotic phenomena, like formation of finite spin texture which is topological non-trivial in nature and commonly known as magnetic skyrmions. Magnetotransport measurements and estimation of topological Hall Effect are very much essential in order to unveil the formation of finite non-collinear spin-texture in such materials having magnetic skyrmions. One of the most promising applications of magnetic skyrmions is in magnetic memory devices, where they can be utilized as bits of information in spintronic devices. In the proposed project, grown van der Waals crystals shall be characterized for phase purity and then various anisotropic physical property measurements, such as, magnetic, magnetocaloric, electrical transport, magneto-transport, Hall Effect, heat capacity, ⁵⁷Fe Mӧssbauer spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy etc. shall be performed on the selected crystals. In brief, the experimental results along with the validation from theoretical models shall provide rich understanding of magnetism, magneto-transport, and topological phenomena in transition metals-based magnetic van der Waals materials which shall further develop physics of spintronic materials. This current project proposal is aimed at that direction to unveil exotic physics with novel scientific investigations. |