Novel Magnetic Monolayers of Transition Metal Silicide

Two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials are important for the potential applications in spintronics and magnetic storage. Twenty transition metal silicide (TMSi2) monolayers have been studied by first-principles calculations. Seven TMSi2 monolayers, i.e., TiSi2, VSi2, CrSi2, MnSi2, FeSi2,NbSi2, and MoSi2, are found to be magnetic. Among them, the formation energies of ferromagnetic TiSi2 and antiferromagnetic FeSi2 monolayers are lower than those of silicene. Meanwhile, a large magnetic moment of 2.512 μB per Mn atom is obtained in monolayer MnSi2 sheet, which has the same formation energy of silicene. Therefore, these three novel magnetic monolayers hold promise in future 2D magnetic devices.