Two-dimensional ferromagnetic TiCTe3 monolayer as an intriguing platform for quantum anomalous Hall effect

The pursuit of two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic (FM) materials that harbor the intrinsic quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) effect has long been an important objective, given its profound implications for exploring novel physical phenomena and advancing next-generation spintronic devices. Herein, based on first-principles calculations, we predict that the 2D FM TiCTe₃ monolayer is an intrinsic QAH insulator with excellent thermodynamic stability. The monolayer exhibits perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, accompanied by a magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) of 139.00 μeV per Ti atom. In the absence of spin–orbit coupling (SOC), the monolayer demonstrates Dirac half-metallic behavior. When the SOC is included, a nontrivial band gap opening of 37.40 meV is achieved, resulting in the emergence of the QAH effect characterized by Chern number C =  − 1 and fully spin-polarized edge states within the bulk band gap. Meanwhile, the MAE and nontrivial band gap of the TiCTe₃ monolayer can be effectively manipulated by biaxial strain. These findings provide a remarkable and promising platform that is expected to have broad applications in nanoelectronics and spintronics.