Thickness-Tunable Growth of Composition-Controllable Two-Dimensional FexGeTe2

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 FexGeTe2 (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 FexGeTe2 and MyFe5-yGeTe2 (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 FexGeTe2 and alloyed CoyFe5-yGeTe2 are substantiated by the superconducting quantum interference device and reflective magnetic circular dichroism. This method generates thickness-tunable high-crystallinity FexGeTe2 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.