A design for an antiferromagnetic material based on self-assembly for information storage

Antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics have sparked extensive research interest in the field of information storage due to the considerable advantages offered by antiferromagnets, including non-volatile data storage, higher storage density, and accelerating data processing. However, the manipulation and detection of internal AFM order in antiferromagnets hinders their applications in spintronic devices. Here, we proposed a design idea for an AFM material that is self-assembled from one-dimensional (1D) ferromagnetic (FM) chains. To validate this idea, we screened a two-dimensional (2D) self-assembled CrBr₂ antiferromagnet of an AFM semiconductor from a large amount of data. This 2D CrBr₂ antiferromagnet is composed of 1D FM CrBr₂ chains that are arranged in a staggered and parallel configuration. In this type of antiferromagnet, the write-data operation of information is achieved in 1D FM chains, followed by a self-assembly process driving the assembly of 1D FM chains into an antiferromagnet. These constituent 1D FM chains become decoupled by external perturbations, such as heat, pressure, strain, etc., thereby realizing the read-data operation of information. We anticipate that this antiferromagnet, composed of 1D FM chains, can be realized not only in the 1D to 2D system, but also is expected to expand to 2D to three-dimensional (3D) system, and even 1D to 3D system.