Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

We present a combined experimental and theoretical study of monolayer vanadium ditelluride, VTe₂, grown on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite by molecular-beam epitaxy. Using various in situ microscopic and spectroscopic techniques, including scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, synchrotron X-ray and angle-resolved photoemission, and X-ray absorption, together with theoretical analysis by density functional theory calculations, we demonstrate direct evidence of the metallic 1T phase and 3d¹ electronic configuration in monolayer VTe₂ that also features a (4 × 4) charge density wave order at low temperatures. In contrast to previous theoretical predictions, our element-specific characterization by X-ray magnetic circular dichroism rules out a ferromagnetic order intrinsic to the monolayer. Our findings provide essential knowledge necessary for understanding this interesting yet less explored metallic monolayer in the emerging family of van der Waals magnets.