Efficient soft-chemical synthesis of large van-der-Waals crystals of the room-temperature ferromagnet 1T-CrTe₂

We herein report on a fast and convenient soft-chemical synthesis approach towards large 1T-CrTe₂ van-der-Waals crystals. This compound is formed X-ray diffraction pure, with a complete conversion within just over 2 h from flux-grown LiCrTe₂ crystals using diluted acids. Due to the availability of high-quality single crystals, we have confirmed the crystal structure for the first time by single-crystal X-ray diffraction experiments. For the acid deintercalated 1T-CrTe₂ crystals, we find long-range ferromagnetic order with a Curie temperature of <i>T</i> _C = 318 K. We further revealed the magnetic structure of 1T-CrTe₂ using low-temperature neutron powder diffraction experiments and determined the magnetic Hamiltonian using density functional theory. X-ray diffraction experiments of post-annealed crystals suggest a thermal stability of 1T-CrTe₂ up to at least 100 °C. Our findings expand the synthesis methods for 1T-CrTe₂ crystals, which hold promise for integrated room-temperature spintronics applications.