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Magnetic anisotropy plays a crucial role in determining the critical behavior and phase transitions in two-dimensional magnetic systems. It is also required for the design of thin-film spintronic devices. Despite its significance, sensing extremely weak anisotropy has proven challenging in van der Waals antiferromagnetic/ferrimagnetic materials. Here, we first employ simulations of micro-magnetic energy function in few-layer easy-plane antiferromagnetic systems with a weak additional uniaxial anisotropy and unveil an intriguing even-odd effect closely linked to low-field spin-flop behaviors. We further perform tunneling magneto-conductance measurements on a model 2D antiferromagnetic insulator, CrCl3, exhibiting near-ideal easy-plane anisotropy. The magnetic field-controlled tunneling current at low temperature aligns well with simulated in-plane anisotropic spin-configuration, providing direct experimental evidence for detecting magnetic anisotropy field as weak as ~1 mT. Our work opens new avenues for finely characterizing magnetic structures and behaviors in 2D antiferromagnetic/ferrimagnetic systems, with potential applications in spintronics such as data storage and magnetic sensing.

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• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International
  

Keyword: magnetic anisotropy, layered antiferromagnet
, CrCl3


Date published: 2025-04-15

Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Journal:

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (ISSN: 10916490) vol. 122 issue. 15 e2414668122

Funding:

• Shanghai Pilot Program for Basic Research, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 21TQ1400206
• MOST | National Key Research and Development Program of China 2020YFA0309200
• MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China 92064013
• MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China 11904226
• Sichuan Science and Technology Program 2024YFHZ0264
• MOST | National Key Research and Development Program of China 2021YFE0194200
• MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China 12161141015
• MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China 62074025
• MOST | National Natural Science Foundation of China 62475149

Manuscript type: Publisher's version (Version of record)

MDR DOI:

First published URL: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2414668122

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Updated at: 2026-05-18 10:05:54 +0900

Published on MDR: 2026-05-18 12:23:11 +0900