Edge-states ferromagnetism of WS2 nanosheets

The multilayer WS2 nanosheets prepared from WO3 nanowires exhibit strong ferromagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization (M-S) of 0.0058 emu/g and coercive field (H-C) of 92Oe at room temperature. By decreasing the temperature down to 3K the H-c is increased up to 1115 Oe, revealing the existence of long-range magnetic ordering. Density functional theory spin-polarized calculations predict that strong ferromagnetic moments in WS2 nanosheets are attributed to the zigzag edge sulphur S and tungsten W atoms. Our findings also suggest that the WS2 nanosheets with a high density of edge spins could be used to fabricate spintronics devices, which are circuits utilizing the spin of the electron to process and store information. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.