Visualizing Magnetic Phase Transitions in 2D van der Waals Materials

The recent discovery of two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials has sparked wide interest in the scientific community due to their potential for a novel atomic-scale platform hosting exotic spin-textures and exhibiting different magnetic phases. Future advances of these materials and their applications, however, rely on quantitative understanding of their magnetic properties at the nanoscale.

Magnetic imaging using a single spin in diamond has proven to be an excellent tool for probing magnetism in van der Waals (vdW) materials with nanoscale resolution. We employ a scanning technique with single Nitrogen-Vacancy centers embedded in an all-diamond scanning probe to image nanoscale magnetization patterns in a range of 2D materials, including members of the prominent Chromium trihalide family. In our studies we focus on layered, antiferromagnetic 2D magnets at cryogenic temperatures, where we image spin textures down to the monolayer limit. With our experiments we gain insight into different magnetic phases, domain formation and magnetic anisotropies in these systems. Our results pave the way for future fundamental experiments on low-dimensional magnetism including also dynamical phenomena such as spin-wave detection in vdW magnets.