Highly sensitive magnetic properties and large linear magnetoresistance in antiferromagnetic CrxSe(0.875 ≤x ≤ 1)single crystals

CrxSe (x <= 1) is a class of quasi-layered binary compounds with potential applications in spintronics due to its intriguing antiferromagnetic properties. In this work, CrxSe single crystals with high Cr content (x = 0.87, 0.91 and 0.95) were grown, and their magnetic and transport properties were investigated in detail. It is found that with small increase of Cr content, the Ne ' el temperature (TN) of the samples can dramatically increase from 147 K to 257 K, accompanied with obvious changes in the magnetic anisotropy and hysteresis. The phenomena of fieldinduced spin-flop transitions were unveiled in these alloys, indicating their comparatively low anisotropy. The magnetoresistance (MR) of the three compounds showed positive dependence at low temperatures and particularly, non-saturated linear positive MR was observed in Cr0.91Se and Cr0.95Se, with a large value of 16.2% achieved in Cr0.91Se (10 K, 9 T). The calculated Fermi surface and MR showed that the quasi-linear MR is a product of carrier compensation. Our work revealed highly sensitive magnetic and transport properties in the CrSe compounds, which can lay foundation when constructing further antiferromagnetic spintronic devices based on them.

Automated summary

This study investigates the magnetic and transport properties of high Cr content CrxSe single crystals. The results show that increasing the Cr content leads to a significant increase in the Neel temperature, accompanied by changes in magnetic anisotropy and hysteresis. At low temperatures, the compounds exhibit positive magnetoresistance, with non-saturated linear positive magnetoresistance observed in Cr0.91Se and Cr0.95Se.