Metal thio(seleno)phosphates MPX3 have attracted considerable attentions with wide spanned band gaps and rich magnetic properties. In this series, two neighboring members MnPS3 and NiPS3 differ in magnetic atoms, magnetic easy axes, spin anisotropies, as well as nearest-neighbor magnetic interactions. The competition between these components may cause intriguing physical phenomena. In this article, the evolution of magnetism of Mn1-xNixPS3 series is reported. Despite the incompatible antiferromagnetic orders of two end members, the antiferromagnetism persists as the ground state in the whole substitution region. The magnetic ordering temperature TN show nonmonotonic V-shape behavior, and the reentrant spin glass phase at x=0.5 is observed. In addition, abnormal bifurcation of TN occurs at x=0.75, which may be due to the temperature-dependent spin reorientation or phase separation. The evolution of magnetism is further confirmed semiquantitatively by our density functional theory calculations. Our study indicates that exotic magnetism can be intrigued when multi-degrees of freedom are involved in these low dimensional systems, which call for more in-depth microscopic studies in future.

Metal thio(seleno) phosphates MPX 3 attract considerable attention with potential application in spintronics and other types of devices. Here, ferromagnetism in an Ising type diluted magnetic semiconductor Fe 1-x Zn x PS 3 is reported. Bulk single crystals of Fe 1-x Zn x PS 3 have been synthesized via chemical vapor transport method and characterized by X-ray diffraction. The weak ferromagnetism associated with spin/cluster spin glass emerges at 30% Zn doping. A nearly static ferromagnetic order is observed in the highly diluted magnets Fe 0.1 Zn 0.9 PS 3 . X-ray photoemission measurements indicate introduction of holes and associated Fe 3+ in samples with ferromagnetic order. Density functional theory calculations confirm the Ising-type ferromagnetic state in highly diluted compounds with hole doping. The interplay between bound magnetic polarons induces impurity-band-exchange and superexchange interactions can explain the evolution of magnetism with Zn doping. The findings suggest that the magnetic diluted FePS 3 system is a candidate for potential applications in magnetic devices, and its quantum mechanism should be explored by using microscopic techniques in the near future.