Fast and controlled growth of two-dimensional layered ZrTe3 nanoribbons by chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Quasi-one-dimensional (1D)/two-dimensional (2D) ZrTe₃ attracts intense interest as a typical charge density wave (CDW)-bearing material. However, the conventional chemical vapor transport (CVT) synthesis of bulk ZrTe₃ is limited by high time consumption, even up to weeks, and low morphological controllability, so it is highly desirable to develop feasible methods for fast and controlled ZrTe₃ growth, and so far, these have not been demonstrated. In this work, we first demonstrated that ZrTe₃ nanoribbons can be grown directly by a modified chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. The growth time is significantly reduced to less than 90 min, and the size of ZrTe₃ nanoribbons can be well tuned by controlling the growth time and growth temperature. Moreover, differing from most of the other transition metal trichalcogenides (TMTCs), we reveal that ZrTe₃ nanoribbons exhibit both competing and synergistic magnetic properties originating from their intrinsic diamagnetism and unexpected ferromagnetism, which can be attributed to their structural imperfection and edge-states due to the reduced dimensionality. Such observable ferromagnetism might favor the exploration of their spin-electronic applications.