Electronic and Magnetic Characterization of Epitaxial CrBr₃ Monolayers on a Superconducting Substrate

The ability to imprint a given material property to another through a proximity effect in layered 2D materials has opened the way to the creation of designer materials. Here, molecular-beam epitaxy is used for direct synthesis of a superconductor–ferromagnet heterostructure by combining superconducting niobium diselenide (NbSe₂) with the monolayer ferromagnetic chromium tribromide (CrBr₃). Using different characterization techniques and density-functional theory calculations, it is confirmed that the CrBr₃ monolayer retains its ferromagnetic ordering with a magnetocrystalline anisotropy favoring an out-of-plane spin orientation. Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy measurements show a slight reduction of the superconducting gap of NbSe₂ and the formation of a vortex lattice on the CrBr₃ layer in experiments under an external magnetic field. The results contribute to the broader framework of exploiting proximity effects to realize novel phenomena in 2D heterostructures.