Strain Induced High Curie Temperature in Molecular Beam Epitaxy Grown Cr2Te3 Thin Films with Perpendicular Magnetic Anisotropy

In this work, Cr2Te3 thin films with high Curie temperature from 191 to 280K on Al2O3 (0001) substrates were grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy technique. In-situ long streaky reflection high energy electron diffraction patterns indicate that the Cr2Te3 thin films were grown with an atomic flat surface and single crystalline quality. X-ray diffraction study shows a significant increase of lattice constant of Cr2Te3 thin films along [001] direction. A ZnSe capping layer was used for tuning the compressive strain in Cr2Te3 thin films, resulting in a change of lattice constant along [001] orientation. A spin glass-like magnetic behavior is systematically investigated by zero-field-cooling and field-cooling magnetization characterizations. A strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is identified by measuring the field dependent magnetization curves along different crystalline directions.