Critical behavior of quasi-two-dimensional weak itinerant ferromagnet trigonal chromium telluride Cr$_{0.62}$Te

Abstract

The critical properties of flux-grown single-crystalline quasi-two-dimensional weak itinerant ferromagnet Cr$_{0.62}$Te were investigated by bulk dc magnetization around the paramagnetic (PM) to ferromagnetic (FM) phase transition. Critical exponents $\beta = 0.315(7)$ with a critical temperature $T_c = 230.6(3)$ K and $\gamma = 1.81(2)$ with $T_c = 229.1(1)$ K are obtained by the Kouvel-Fisher method whereas $\delta = 6.35(4)$ is obtained by a critical isotherm analysis at $T_c = 230$ K. With these obtained exponents, the magnetization-field-temperature curves collapse into two independent curves following a single scaling equation $M|\frac{T-T_c}{T_c}|^{-\beta} = f_\pm(H|\frac{T-T_c}{T_c}|^{-\beta\delta})$ around $T_c$, suggesting the reliability of the obtained exponents. Additionally, the determined exponents of Cr$_{0.62}$Te exhibit an Ising-like behavior with a change from short-range order to long-range order in the nature of magnetic interaction and with an extension from 2D to 3D on cooling through $T_c$.