Spin glass behavior in amorphous CrSiTe3 alloy

Owing to the intrinsically high crystallization temperatures, layered phase-change materials, such as CrGeTe3 and InGeTe3, are attracting attention for embedded memory applications, In addition to the electrical contrast, a major change in magnetic properties is observed in CrGeTe3 upon switching from the crystalline to the amorphous state. In this work, we report a combined ab initio modeling and magnetic characterization study on the isostructural silicon parent compound of CrGeTe3, namely, CrSiTe3. Amorphous CrSiTe3 has similar structural properties to amorphous CrGeTe3; however, it shows a smaller energy difference between the ferromagnetic configuration and the random magnetic configuration, indicating a high probability of spin glass formation. Indeed, direct-current and alternating-current magnetic measurements show that the coercive force of amorphous CrSiTe3 is higher than that of amorphous CrGeTe3. Therefore, the pinning effect of spins is enhanced in amorphous CrSiTe3, leading to a more robust spin glass state with a higher freezing temperature. The large magnetic contrast between the amorphous and crystalline phase could make CrSiTe3 a potential candidate for phase-change magnetic switching applications.