Also called CGT, CrSiTe₃
The other material in the 2017 discovery of 2D magnetism. Unlike chromium triiodide it behaves like a soft, nearly direction-independent magnet, so its ordering temperature collapses as layers are removed – a clean demonstration that magnetic anisotropy is what keeps 2D magnets magnetic. It is also a magnetic semiconductor that is somewhat easier to handle than CrI3.
They are coordination polyhedra. Only complete ones are drawn.
Three layers of Cr2Ge2Te6. Each layer is shifted by the same step in the same direction, so the pattern repeats only after three layers: c = 20.44 Å. In bulk crystals the chromium moments order ferromagnetically, pointing out of the layers. Cell from Carteaux and colleagues, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 7, 69 (1995); COD 1543733.
Readiness runs lab → prototype → pilot → deployed.
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A near-Heisenberg honeycomb ferromagnet whose thickness-dependent Curie temperature is the textbook case for renormalised spin-wave or Monte Carlo treatments with a small anisotropy gap. Exchange parameters are sensitive to Te p–Cr d hybridisation and to the choice of U. DFT reproduces the measured anisotropy only for a particular U, and places almost fully spin-polarised, quasi-two-dimensional states at the bottom of the conduction band.
Use Kerr microscopy with a small out-of-plane bias field to observe order in few-layer flakes; anomalous Hall measurements in heterostructures give a complementary signature. Flux-grown crystals typically contain fewer defects than vapour-transport ones.
A research magnetic semiconductor; with ordering below ~65 K, any spintronic use would be cryogenic.
The newest items tagged Cr2Ge2Te6, from the news feed updated 5 Oct 2026.
Solid-state harmonic generation provides a nonlinear probe of symmetries encoded in electronic wave functions. In the subgap and weak-injection regime, time reversal pairs the harmonic responses driven by fields of opposite ellipticity, strongly suppressing elliptical dichroism in time-reversal-symmetric crystals. We…
Phononic frequency combs have been demonstrated experimentally and theoretically in the kHz-MHz regime under nonlinear driving; however, their spontaneous formation in the GHz-THz regime remains rare. We investigate the spontaneous formation of frequency combs in van der Waals solid CrGeTe3, where combs of spacing ∼2…
Spin transistors with its both charge and spin properties tuned via electrostatic gating are believed capable for widespread use, which however have proven challenging due to the extreme rareness of their physical base -- magnetic semiconductors. The latter are limited within very few systems including diluted magnetic…
Electrical control of topological magnetism is central to realizing energy-efficient topological spintronics. Yet most electric-field approaches modify the competing magnetic interactions through a nonselective rearrangement of low-energy electronic states, yielding coarse magnetic phase control that often requires…
Atomic-scale heterostructures of van der Waals (vdW) magnets and semiconductors provide a unique environment for exploring magnetic dynamics. In contrast to typical photothermal excitation of precessional magnetization dynamics by a pump laser pulse, we find that ultrafast optical excitation of a WS2/CrGeTe3 (CGT)…
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