LiCrTe₂ is an antiferromagnetic compound and was synthesized as powder for the first time in 2016 by Kobayashi et al because of the expected exotic ground states and physical properties that come along with two-dimensional triangular-lattice compounds.^[1,2] LiCrTe₂ can be understood as a Li intercalated version of the thermodynamically metastable 1T-CrTe₂ van der Waals compound and was believed to have a helical spin structure.^[3]

We report on the single crystal synthesis of LiCrTe₂ employing a Te/Li-flux and find the transition temperature to be substantially higher (~150 K) then previously reported (70 K).^[4] 

With neutron powder diffraction measurements, we were able to determine the Li content as stoichiometric and elucidate the long-range low temperature magnetic structure as being A-type antiferromagnetic, with the easy axis along the c-direction. This is consistent with our DFT calculations. We have determined the magnetic phase diagram of this material using detailed orientation dependent magnetization measurements and reveal a pronounced metamagnetic transition for H ⊥ ab with a critical field of µH_MM(5 K) ≈ 2.5 T.

Our findings suggest that LiCrTe₂ is a promising material for exploring the interplay between crystal structure and magnetism, and could have potential applications in spin-based 2D devices.

1. Kobayashi S, Ueda H, Michioka C and Yoshimura K, Inorg. Chem., 2016, 55 7407–13.
2. Nocerino E, Kobayashi S, Witteveen C et al, arXiv, 2022, arXiv:2211.06864
3. Nocerino E, Witteveen C, Kobayashi S et al, Sci. Rep., 2022, 12 21657
4. Witteveen C, Nocerino E, López-Paz S et al, arXiv, 2023, arXiv:2304.01767