Covalent 2D Cr₂Te₃ ferromagnet

To broaden the scope of van der Waals 2D magnets, we report the synthesis and magnetism of covalent 2D magnetic Cr₂Te₃ with a thickness down to one-unit-cell. The 2D Cr₂Te₃ crystals exhibit robust ferromagnetism with a Curie temperature of 180 K, a large perpendicular anisotropy of 7 × 10⁵ J m⁻³, and a high coercivity of ∼4.6 kG at 20 K. First principles calculations further show a transition from canted to collinear ferromagnetism, a transition from perpendicular to in-plane anisotropy, and emergent half-metallic behavior in atomically-thin Cr₂Te₃, suggesting its potential application for injecting carriers with high spin polarization into spintronic devices.