A research team led by Assistant Professor Lu Jiong from the Department of Chemistry, NUS has demonstrated that the incorporation of isolated cobalt (Co) atoms into superconducting TaS2 layers can induce local magnetic moments and ferromagnetic coupling. This creates a material with ferromagnetic and superconducting domains within a single atomic layer. In comparison with conventional vertically stacked structures, integrating these two competing phases into a single layer not only offers improved flexibility in device design and fabrication, it also opens up new potential applications.
The interplay between superconductivity and ferromagnetism creates numerous exotic physical phenomena, which can be harnessed for next generation device applications. The integration of these two competing phases is usually achieved by vertically stacking superconductor and ferromagnetic layers one after another. Controllable synthesis of hybrid atomic layers which accommodate both superconductivity and ferromagnetism remain a considerable challenge.
Prof Lu said, “We envisage that our findings of the interlayer-space confined chemical design will provide a new chemical route to engineer artificial molecular superlattice of layered materials with exotic and antagonistic properties for desired functionalities.”
Read more about their new discovery here.
