Electrically tunable magnetism and unique intralayer charge transfer in Janus monolayer MnSSe for spintronics applications

Controlling magnetism and electronic properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials by purely electrical means is crucial and highly sought for high-efficiency spintronics devices since electric field can be easily applied locally compared with magnetic field. The recently discover 2D Janus crystals has provide a new platform for nanoscale electronics and spintronics due to their broken inversion symmetry nature. The intrinsic ferromagnetic Jauns monolayer, and hence the tunable physical properties, is therefore of great interest. Here, through comprehensive density functional theory calculations and Monte Carlo simulations, we unveil that single-layer MnSSe is an intrinsic ferromagnetic half-metal with a direct band gap of 1.14 eV in spin-down channel and a Curie temperature of about 72 K. The exchange coupling can be significantly enhanced or quenched by hole and electron doping, respectively. In particular, a small amount of hole doping MnSSe can tune its magnetization easy axis in between out-of-plane and in-plane directions, which is conducive to designing 2D spin field-effect transistor for spin-dependent transport. We also find a reversible longitudinal interlayer charge transfer between S and Se layers for the first time that is highly sensitive to the applied external electric field. Interestingly, the directions of charge flow and the applied field are the same. The behavior originates from the coexistence and/or the competition of external and built-in fields. These findings, together with the excellent stability and large in-plane stiffness, can greatly facilitate the development of nanoscale electronics and spintronics devices based on 2D MnSSe crystal.