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  • Published Article: Physical origin of giant excitonic and magneto-optical responses in two-dimensional ferromagnetic insulators
Title: Physical origin of giant excitonic and magneto-optical responses in two-dimensional ferromagnetic insulators
Abstract

The recent discovery of magnetism in atomically thin layers of van der Waals crystals has created great opportunities for exploring light–matter interactions and magneto-optical phenomena in the two-dimensional limit. Optical and magneto-optical experiments have provided insights into these topics, revealing strong magnetic circular dichroism and giant Kerr signals in atomically thin ferromagnetic insulators. However, the nature of the giant magneto-optical responses and their microscopic mechanism remain unclear. Here, by performing first-principlesGWand Bethe-Salpeter equation calculations, we show that excitonic effects dominate the optical and magneto-optical responses in the prototypical two-dimensional ferromagnetic insulator, CrI3. We simulate the Kerr and Faraday effects in realistic experimental setups, and based on which we predict the sensitive frequency- and substrate-dependence of magneto-optical responses. These findings provide physical understanding of the phenomena as well as potential design principles for engineering magneto-optical and optoelectronic devices using two-dimensional magnets.
Authors:
; ; ;
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10153407
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Volume:
10
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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