Noncollinear ferrimagnets combining the advantages of both controllable net magnetization and ultrafast spin dynamics are promising for spintronic and spin-torque devices. However, they are rare in the van der Waals (vdW) materials. Here, we systematically studied the magnetic behavior of a vdW semiconductor CrSCl exhibiting potential noncollinear ferrimagnetism. The nature of two-sublattice ferrimagnetic order was confirmed by fitting the temperature-dependent reciprocal of molar magnetic susceptibility above TC. Remarkably, an unusual decrease that can be suppressed by the external field was observed on the temperature-dependent magnetization curves, which is beyond the expectation for the collinear ferrimagnet. Combined with further analyses on the field-dependent magnetization curves and critical behavior and first-principles calculations, we propose that the potential spin canting is responsible for these observations. These findings render CrSCl a prospective vdW noncollinear ferrimagnetic semiconductor that could benefit spintronic applications.
Yang et al. (Mon,) studied this question.