Tunable magneto-optical Kerr effect in two-dimensional non-collinear antiferromagnetic material HfFeCl6

Abstract

With the development of two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials, the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) is widely used to measure ferromagnetism in 2D systems. Although this effect is usually inactive in antiferromagnets (AFM), recent theoretical studies have demonstrated that the presence of MOKE relies on the symmetry of the system and antiferromagnets with noncollinear magnetic order can also induce a significant MOKE signal even without a net magnetization. However, this phenomenon is rarely studied in 2D systems due to the scarcity of appropriate materials hosting noncollinear AFM order. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we investigate the HfFeCl6 monolayer with noncollinear Y-AFM ground states, which simultaneously breaks the time-reversal (T) and time-inversion (TI) symmetry, activating the MOKE even though with zero net magnetic moment. In addition, four different MOKE spectra can be obtained in the four permutation states of spin chirality and crystal chirality. The MOKE spectra are switchable when reversing both crystal and spin chirality. Our study provides a material platform to explore the MOKE effect and can potentially be used for electrical readout of AFM states.