Thickness-Tunable Growth of Composition-Controllable Two-Dimensional Fe x GeTe 2 .
Huaning JiangZhihao ZangXingguo WangHaifeng QueLei WangKunpeng SiPeng ZhangYu YeYongji GongPublished in: Nano letters (2022)
Two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials provide an ideal platform for investigating novel magnetism and spin behavior in low-dimensional systems while being restricted by the deficiency of accurate bottom-up synthesis. To overcome this difficulty, a facile and universal flux-assisted growth (FAG) method is proposed to synthesize the multicomponent Fe x GeTe 2 ( x = 3-5) with different Fe contents and even alloyed with hetero metal atoms. This one-to-one method ensures the stoichiometry consistency from the Fe x GeTe 2 and M y Fe 5- y GeTe 2 (M = Co, Ni) bulk crystal precursors to the 2D nanosheets, with controllable composition. Tuning the growth temperatures can provide thickness-tunable products. Changeable magnetic properties of Fe x GeTe 2 and alloyed Co y Fe 5- y GeTe 2 are substantiated by the superconducting quantum interference device and reflective magnetic circular dichroism. This method generates thickness-tunable high-crystallinity Fe x GeTe 2 samples without phase separation and exhibits a high tolerance to different substrates and a large temperature window, providing a new avenue to synthesize and explore such multicomponent 2D magnets and even the alloyed ones.