Molecular Beam Epitaxy Growth of Thin-Film Altermagnet CrSb

Altermagnets are a class of crystal symmetry compensated, collinear magnetic materials with spin splitting in their electronic band structure. CrSb is a metallic altermagnet with large spin splitting and a high Neel temperature (703K). We report thin film growth of CrSb by molecular beam epitaxy, on insulating SrTiO₃ (111) substrates with a thin layer of Sb₂Te₃ buffer. RHEED, X-ray crystallography and TEM measurements confirm good quality, epitaxial thin film growth of the material. We study surface morphology and crystal orientation as a function of growth conditions and show that the NiAs-type, CrSb 0001 film is epitaxial for specific regions in the elemental flux ratio versus temperature parameter space. We also probe the electronic properties of the surface and bulk of the system using in vacuo ARPES and ex situ transport measurements respectively. The synthesis of good quality epitaxial CrSb thin films provides promising opportunities for heterostructure designs interfacing altermagnets with other emergent material systems for magnetism and spintronics research and application.