Intrinsic 2D ferromagnetism in VSe epitaxial thin films

中野 匡規*; Wang, Y.*; 吉田 訓*; 松岡 秀樹*; 真島 裕貴*; 池田 啓祐*; 平田 靖透*; 竹田 幸治; 和達 大樹*; 小濱 芳允*; et al.

Nano Letters, 19(12), p.8806 - 8810, 2019/12

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.9b03614

The discoveries of intrinsic ferromagnetism in atomically thin van der Waals crystals have opened a new research field enabling fundamental studies on magnetism at two-dimensional (2D) limit as well as development of magnetic van der Waals heterostructures. Here we demonstrate that VSe epitaxial thin films grown by molecular-beam epitaxy exhibit emergent 2D ferromagnetism with intrinsic spin polarization of the V 3d electrons although the bulk counterpart is originally antiferromagnetic. Moreover, thickness-dependence measurements reveal that this newly developed 2D ferromagnet could be classified as an itinerant 2D Heisenberg ferromagnet with weak magnetic anisotropy.