One-dimensional CrI3 encapsulated within multi-walled carbon nanotubes
İhsan Çaha, Aqrab ul Ahmad, B. Loukya, Manuel Bañobre‐López, A. T. Costa, Andrey N. Enyashin, Weibin Li, Pierluigi Gargiani, Manuel Valvidares, J. Fernández‐Rossier, Francis Leonard Deepak
Abstract
The production of single-walled inorganic nanotubes is challenging due to the energetic favorability of multi-walled structures during synthesis. CrI3, a layered ferromagnetic insulator, has gained significant attention as the first stand-alone monolayer ferromagnet, sparking interest in two-dimensional magnetic materials. Here, we report the synthesis of high-quality, monolayer CrI3 nanotubes encapsulated within multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs), ranging from 2 to 10 nm with an average diameter of 5.3 nm, as well as a smaller amount of CrI3 nanorods. Through aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy, and first-principles calculations, we explored the fundamental physics and magnetism of these 1D van der Waals heterostructures. These findings pave the way towards the exploration of non-collinear magnetic states in tubular geometries, driven by the interplay of magnetic anisotropy and curvature. Producing single-walled inorganic nanotubes is challenging because their multi-walled counterparts are favored during synthesis. Here, the authors produce one-dimensional single-walled CrI3 encapsulated within multi-walled carbon nanotubes and explore their magnetic properties.