Observation of magnetization surface textures of the van der Waals antiferromagnet FePS3 by spin Hall magnetoresistance

Abstract: Van der Waals materials are a new platform to study two-dimensional systems, including magnetic order. Since the number of spins is relatively small, measuring the magnetization is challenging. Here we report spin Hall magnetoresistance (SMR) up to room temperature caused by the magnetic surface texture of exfoliated flakes of magnetic van der Waals materials. For the antiferromagnet FePS3 the SMR amounts to 0.1 % for an applied magnetic field of 7 T at 5 K which implies a substantial canting of the magnetic moments relative to the colinear antiferromagnetic order. The canting is substantial even for a magnetic field along the N\'eel vector, which illustrates the unique power of the SMR to detect magnetic surface textures in van der Waals magnets.