Controllable synthesis of environmentally stable vdW antiferromagnetic oxyhalide CrOCl†

Abstract

Layered antiferromagnetic oxyhalides with high environmental stability have recently attracted significant interest owing to their applications in spintronics and quantum devices. These materials can sustain a host of interesting phenomena that arise from magnetic phase transitions associated with structural changes. Although bulk crystal synthesis for some members of this oxyhalide family has been previously reported, bottom-up approaches for scalable growth remain limited. In this work, we demonstrated the controllable synthesis of CrOCl on different substrates through an atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) technique using CrCl₃ and KMnO₄ precursors. Our results demonstrate the successful gas-phase reaction and subsequent nucleation followed by island growth on different target substrates. Comprehensive structural and optical characterization reveals that the effect of temperature, growth time, and carrier gas flow rates ultimately dictate the overall phase and morphology of the crystal. Overall, our findings enhance the understanding of the bottom-up growth mechanisms for synthesizing layered oxyhalides and further expand the library of stable magnetic oxides.