Probing Magnetic Proximity Coupling in 2D van der Waals Epitaxial Heterostructures

Transition metal dichalcogenides offer a versatile platform to examine a variety of collective quantum states including charge density waves, superconductivity, and nontrivial topological phases. The recent discovery that long-range magnetic order can be preserved in van der Waals magnets as they are thinned down to few- or even single-layer thicknesses has opened an exciting new opportunity to incorporate and engineer magnetic interactions in this family of materials. Monolayer VX2 [X=Se,Te] is well-established to host an unusual charge density-wave phase, which is thought to destabilise a competing instability to itinerant magnetism. Here, we will use X-ray magnetic circular dichroism to search for the possibility to re-establish magnetic order in VX2 via proximity coupling in van der Waals heterostructures with few-layer Cr2X3 epitaxial layers, and will search spectroscopically for a corresponding influence on the charge order of the monolayer. Together this promises new insights on the nature of phase competition at the 2D limit of interacting quantum materials, and to unveil new routes through which to control this.