Magnetic domains and domain wall pinning in atomically thin CrBr3 revealed by nanoscale imaging

The emergence of atomically thin van der Waals magnets provides a new platform for the studies of two-dimensional magnetism and its applications. However, the widely used measurement methods in recent studies cannot provide quantitative information of the magnetization nor achieve nanoscale spatial resolution. These capabilities are essential to explore the rich properties of magnetic domains and spin textures. Here, we employ cryogenic scanning magnetometry using a single-electron spin of a nitrogen-vacancy center in a diamond probe to unambiguously prove the existence of magnetic domains and study their dynamics in atomically thin CrBr3. By controlling the magnetic domain evolution as a function of magnetic field, we find that the pinning effect is a dominant coercivity mechanism and determine the magnetization of a CrBr3 bilayer to be about 26 Bohr magnetons per square nanometer. The high spatial resolution of this technique enables imaging of magnetic domains and allows to locate the sites of defects that pin the domain walls and nucleate the reverse domains. Our work highlights scanning nitrogen-vacancy center magnetometry as a quantitative probe to explore nanoscale features in two-dimensional magnets. Van der Waals (vdW) magnets have allowed researchers to explore the two dimensional limit of magnetisation; however experimental challenges have hindered analysis of magnetic domains. Here, using an NV centre based probe, the authors analyse the nature of magnetic domains in the vdW magnet, CrBr3.

Automated summary

The emergence of atomically thin van der Waals magnets provides a new platform for studying two-dimensional magnetism and its applications. Utilizing cryogenic scanning magnetometry with a single-electron spin of a nitrogen-vacancy center in a diamond probe, researchers have successfully proven the existence of magnetic domains and studied their dynamics in atomically thin CrBr3. The high spatial resolution of this technique enables imaging of magnetic domains and analysis of coercivity mechanisms.