Nanoscale Imaging of Magnetic Structure of an Atomically Thin Antiferromagnet

Antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials are predicted to play a crucial role in conceptualized spintronics devices, such as ultrafast magnetic memory devices and magnonic devices for generating, transmitting, and detecting high-frequency signals. The van der Waals (vdW) based AFMs display highly intriguing properties, such as thickness-dependent magnetic ground state, electric field tunability, enhancement of interlayer AFM exchange coupling in the ultra-thin limit, and tunable magnon-magnon coupling, to name a few. Moreover, one must develop a comprehensive understanding of magnetism in AFM systems for spintronics device applications. Layered CrSBr is a unique system for studying AFM order. In CrSBr, the magnetic moments lie in the plane defined by Cr layers. The moments are aligned ferromagnetically within the layer, but nearby layers are antiferromagnetically coupled. We will report on experiments wherein we employ photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) paired surface-sensitive X-ray Magnetic Circular/Linear Dichroism (XMCD/XMLD) to perform layer-dependent domain imaging of CrSBr. We will discuss detailed thickness, temperature, and externally applied magnetic field-dependent magnetic domain imaging of atomically thin samples of CrSBr.