Bulk-Like Magnetic Moment of Epitaxial 2-D Superlattices

Over the past four years, the magnetism of 2-D magnets has been extensively studied by the full arsenal of probing techniques. Two-dimensional magnets can be incorporated to form heterostructures with clean and sharp interfaces, which gives rise to exotic phenomena as a result of the interfacial proximity effect. Here, we report a detailed study of the spin (
$m_{s}$
) and orbital (
$m_{l}$
) moments of an epitaxial (CrSb/Fe
₃
GeTe
₂
)
₆
superlattice. The synchrotron-radiation-based X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) technique was performed to probe the microscopic magnetic properties of the superlattices in an elemental resolved manner. We unambiguously obtained a bulk-like moment of Fe
₃
GeTe
₂
, i.e.,
$m_{s} = 1.58~\mu _{\text {B}}/\text {Fe} \pm 0.2~\mu _{\text {B}}$
/Fe and
$m_{l} = 0.22~\mu _{\text {B}}/\text {Fe} \pm 0.02~\mu _{\text {B}}$
/Fe. Future works to explore the tuning of the spin-polarized band structure of 2-D ferromagnetic superlattices will be of great interest and can have strong implications for both fundamental physics and the emerging spintronics technology.