Enhanced Curie temperature and conductivity of van der Waals ferromagnet MgVS electrostatic doping.

A van der Waals intrinsic ferromagnet with double magnetic atom layers is of great interest for both revealing fundamental physics and exploring promising applications in low-dimensional spintronics. Here, the magnetic and electronic properties of the van der Waals ferromagnet MgVS monolayer are studied under electrostatic doping using first-principles calculations. A MgVS monolayer presents the desired physical properties such as that of being a half-semiconductor with a direct bandgap of 1.21 eV and a ferromagnetic ground state, and having a high Curie temperature of 462 K. Unlike the robust ferromagnetic ground state, magnetic anisotropy and Curie temperature are sensitive to electrostatic doping. Meanwhile, the transition from a semiconductor to a half-metal and the significant improvement in conductivity under electrostatic doping make the MgVS monolayer a promising candidate for low-dimensional spintronic field-effect transistors.