Epitaxial growth and magneto-transport properties of kagome metal FeGe thin films

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful epitaxial growth of high-quality kagome FeGe thin films and investigates their structural and magneto-transport properties, revealing insights into charge density waves and potential spintronic applications.

Contribution

It is the first report of epitaxial FeGe thin films, providing a new platform to study charge density waves and antiferromagnetic spintronics.

Findings

FeGe thin films exhibit a Néel temperature of 397 K.

Transport measurements show a rapid change in Hall coefficient and magnetoresistance around 100 K.

Structural analysis confirms high-quality, single-phase kagome FeGe films.

Abstract

Antiferromagnetic kagome metal FeGe has attracted tremendous attention in condensed matter physics due to the charge density wave (CDW) being well below its magnetic transition temperature. Up to now, numerous works on kagome FeGe have been based on single crystal bulk, but its thin film form has still not been reported. Here, we achieved epitaxial growth of FeGe thin films on Al2O3 substrates using molecular beam epitaxy. Structural characterization with x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals single phase with flat surface of kagome FeGe thin films. Moreover, a N\'eel temperature of 397 K and a rapid variation of Hall coefficient and magnetoresistance around 100 K, which might be related to the CDW, were revealed via transport measurements. The high quality kagome FeGe thin films are expected to provide a versatile platform to study the mechanism of CDW and explore the application of FeGe in antiferromagnetic spintronics.