- Yuan, Yanan;
- Liu, Daxiang;
- Yu, Jingjing;
- Zhang, Guanhua;
- Chen, Xiang;
- Liu, Ruiqi;
- Wang, Siyu;
- Pei, Fangfang;
- Wei, Long;
- Li, Zhi;
- Guo, Junming;
- Wang, Shouguo;
- Liao, Zhaoliang;
- Yan, Wensheng;
- Qiu, Ziqiang;
- Yang, Mengmeng;
- Li, Qian
The creation of van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnets with tunable Curie temperature (TC) and magnetic anisotropy is essential in developing vdW magnet-based devices. Here, we report an effective and reliable method for modulating the magnetic properties of vdW Fe5GeTe2 by site-specific Ga+ implantation. In this study, we report an easy axis in the ab-plane for bulk Fe5GeTe2 (TC = 310 K) and an axis out of the plane for thin Fe5GeTe2 flakes (TC = 290 K). Combining element-resolved photoemission electron microscopy and spatially resolved magneto-optic Kerr microscopy, we find that the implantation of a tiny amount of 10−3 Ga+·Å−3 in Fe5GeTe2 greatly enhances the TC from 290 to 360 K and switches the magnetic easy axis from the out-of-plane c axis to the ab-plane. The room-temperature x-ray magnetic circular dichroism signal is enhanced from 0% to 9% at an implantation level of 10−2 Ga+·Å−3. These results provide new opportunities for tailoring the magnetic properties of vdW materials beyond room temperature.