Edge-states ferromagnetism of WS2 nanosheets

The multilayer WS2 nanosheets prepared from WO3 nanowires exhibit strong ferromagnetic behavior with saturation magnetization (MS) of 0.0058 emu/g and coercive field (HC) of 92 Oe at room temperature. By decreasing the temperature down to 3 K the Hc 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.