Intrinsic ferromagnetic Janus Cr2PAs monolayer with controllable magnetic anisotropy

Two-dimensional materials with intrinsic ferromagnetism, high Curie temperature and sizable magnetic anisotropy are promising candidates for the development of next-generation information technology. Based on first-principles calculations, we propose a new tetragonal Janus Cr2PAs monolayer, which is not only dynamically and thermally stable, but also shows ferromagnetism with a band gap of 0.718 eV. The predicted Curie temperature of Janus Cr2PAs monolayer is 794 K. Janus Cr2PAs monolayer exhibits an in-plane magnetic anisotropy of -0.260 meV/unit cell. Remarkably, the magnetization easy axis of Janus Cr2PAs monolayer changes from in-plane [100] to out-of-plane [001] direction with a critical hole doping at -0.6 e/unit cell. The perpendicular magnetic anisotropy increases with the further increase of hole concentration, it reaches up to 0.301 meV/As at concentration of -0.8 e/unit cell. The high Curie temperature and controllable magnetic anisotropy of Janus Cr2PAs monolayer make it a promising candidate for practical spintronic applications. (C) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.