Some magnetic systems display a shift in the center of
their magnetic
hysteresis loop away from zero field, a phenomenon termed exchange
bias. Despite the extensive use of the exchange bias effect, particularly
in magnetic multilayers, for the design of spin-based memory/electronics
devices, a comprehensive mechanistic understanding of this effect
remains a longstanding problem. Recent work has shown that disorder-induced
spin frustration might play a key role in exchange bias, suggesting
new materials design approaches for spin-based electronic devices
that harness this effect. Here, we design a spin glass with strong
spin frustration induced by magnetic disorder by exploiting the distinctive
structure of Fe intercalated ZrSe
2
, where Fe(II) centers
are shown to occupy both octahedral and tetrahedral interstitial sites
and to distribute between ZrSe
2
layers without long-range
structural order. Notably, we observe behavior consistent with a magnetically
frustrated and multidegenerate ground state in these Fe
0.17
ZrSe
2
single crystals, which persists above room temperature.
Moreover, this magnetic frustration leads to a robust and tunable
exchange bias up to 250 K. These results not only offer important
insights into the effects of magnetic disorder and frustration in
magnetic materials generally, but also highlight as design strategy
the idea that a large exchange bias can arise from an inhomogeneous
microscopic environment without discernible long-range magnetic order.
In addition, these results show that intercalated TMDs like Fe
0.17
ZrSe
2
hold potential for spintronic technologies
that can achieve room temperature applications.