Room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors through metal-semiconductor transition in monolayer MnSe2

Abstract: To realize room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors is still a challenge in spintronics. Recent experiments have obtained two-dimensional (2D) room temperature ferromagnetic metals, such as monolayer MnSe2. In this paper, we proposed a way to obtain room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors through metal-semiconductor transition. By the density functional theory calculations, a room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductor is obtained in monolayer MnSe2 with a few percent tensile strains, where a metal-semiconductor transition occurs with 2.2% tensile stain. The tensile stains raise the energy of d orbitals of Mn atoms and p orbitals of Se atoms near the Fermi level, making the Fermi level sets in the energy gap of bonding and antibonding states of these p and d orbitals, and opening a small band gap. The room temperature ferromagnetic semiconductors are also obtained in the heterostructures MnSe2/X (X = Al2Se3, GaSe, SiH, and GaP), where metal-semiconductor transition happens due to the tensile strains by interface of heterostructures. In addition, a large magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is obtained in monolayer MnSe2 with tensile strain and MnSe2-based heterostructures. Our theoretical results pave a way to obtain room temperature magnetic semiconductors from experimentally obtained 2D room temperature ferromagnetic metals through metal-semiconductor transitions.