Magnetic Second-Order Topological Insulator: An Experimentally Feasible 2D CrSiTe3

2D second-order topological insulators (SOTIs) have sparked significant interest, but currently, the proposed realistic 2D materials for SOTIs are limited to nonmagnetic systems. In this study, for the first time, a single layer of chalcogenide CrSiTe₃—an experimentally realized transition metal trichalcogenide is proposed with a layer structure—as a 2D ferromagnetic (FM) SOTI. Based on first-principles calculations, this study confirms that the CrSiTe₃ monolayer exhibits a nontrivial gapped bulk state in the spin-up channel and a trivial gapped bulk state in the spin-down channel. Based on the higher-order bulk–boundary correspondence, it demonstrates that the CrSiTe₃ monolayer exhibits topologically protected corner states with a quantized fractional charge ($\frac{e}{3}$) in the spin-up channel. Notably, unlike previous nonmagnetic examples, the topological corner states of the CrSiTe₃ monolayer are spin-polarized and pinned at the corners of the sample in real space. Furthermore, the CrSiTe₃ monolayer retains SOTI features when the spin–orbit coupling (SOC) is considered, as evidenced by the corner charge and corner states distribution. Finally, by applying biaxial strain and hole doping, this study transforms the magnetic insulating bulk states into spin-gapless semiconducting and half-metallic bulk states, respectively. Importantly, the topological corner states persist in the spin-up channel under these conditions.