Combined piezoelectricity, valley splitting and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in Janus GdXY (X, Y = Cl, Br, I) magnetic semiconductors

Abstract

Janus materials, as a family of multifunctional materials with broken mirror symmetry, have played a great role in piezoelectric, valley-related, and Rashba spin–orbit coupling (SOC) applications. Using first-principles calculations, it is predicted that monolayer 2H-GdXY (X, Y = Cl, Br, I) will combine giant piezoelectricity, intrinsic valley splitting and a strong Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction (DMI), resulting from the intrinsic electric polarization, spontaneous spin polarization and strong spin–orbit coupling. Opposite Berry curvatures and unequal Hall conductivities at the K- and K′-valleys of monolayer GdXY are promising for storing information through the anomalous valley Hall effect (AVHE). Through construction of the spin Hamiltonian and micromagnetic model, we obtained the primary magnetic parameters of monolayer GdXY as a function of the biaxial strain. Due to the dimensionless parameter κ having strong tunability, monolayer GdClBr is promising to host isolated skyrmions. The present results are expected to enable the application of Janus materials in piezoelectricity, spin- and valley-tronics and the formation of chiral magnetic structures.