Strain-Control Magnetic Anisotropy of Antiferromagnetism in Two-Dimensional MXene V₂C(OH)₂

Using antiferromagnetic order states to store information is desirable due to the high rate of data writing, large density of storage, and high anti-interference capability. Tuning magnetic anisotropy is required for data writing with a low energy consumption. In this work, we investigated the control of magnetism of antiferromagnetic two-dimensional MXene V2C(OH)2 based on density functional theory. We find that the magnetic anisotropy in V2C(OH)2 can be regulated by applying both in-plane tensile and vertical compression strain. With applying strain, the energy band gap can also be obviously varied. By the density of states and orbital-resolved magnetic anisotropy, we confirm that the strain-inducing changes of the distribution of the dz2 orbital states near the Fermi level, which form magnetic anisotropy with the dxz orbital by the spin–orbital coupling, have significant effects on the control of magnetic anisotropy. The results of this study show that the two-dimensional MXene material V2C(OH)2 with strain-tunable antiferromagnetism will have potential application in spintronics devices.