TaCo₂Te₂: An Air-Stable, High Mobility Van der Waals Material with Probable Magnetic Order

Van der Waals (vdW) materials are an indispensable part of functional device technology due to their versatile physical properties and ease of exfoliating to the low-dimensional limit. Among all the compounds investigated so far, the search for magnetic vdW materials has intensified in recent years, fueled by the realization of magnetism in 2D. However, metallic magnetic vdW systems are still uncommon. In addition, they rarely host high-mobility charge carriers, which is an essential requirement for high-speed electronic applications. Another shortcoming of 2D magnets is that they are highly air sensitive. Using chemical reasoning, TaCo₂Te₂ is introduced as an air-stable, high-mobility, magnetic vdW material. It has a layered structure, which consists of Peierls distorted Co chains and a large vdW gap between the layers. It is found that the bulk crystals can be easily exfoliated and the obtained thin flakes are robust to ambient conditions after 4 months of monitoring using an optical microscope. Signatures of canted antiferromagntic behavior are also observed at low-temperature. TaCo₂Te₂ shows a metallic character and a large, nonsaturating, anisotropic magnetoresistance. Furthermore, the Hall data and quantum oscillation measurements reveal the presence of both electron- and hole-type carriers and their high mobility.