Seeded Vapor-Phase Synthesis and Properties of Two-Dimensional Ferromagnet Fe₃GeTe₂ Nanoplates

Fe₃GeTe₂ (FGT) is a two-dimensional van der Waals ferromagnetic material that has garnered significant attention due to its high Curie temperature (150-230 K, depending on Fe occupancy) and strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy down to the monolayer limit. Previous studies have focused on examining FGT samples exfoliated from bulk crystals grown through solid-state reactions or chemical vapor transport, although precise thickness control is difficult with exfoliation. Here, we present a new growth strategy for bottom-up synthesis of FGT nanoplates using seeded chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Seeding particles of binary precursor provides a new route for FGT CVD growth via conversion, enabling scalable and controllable synthesis of a ternary FGT phase. The resulting hexagonal FGT plates exhibit a thickness down to 15 nm (20 layers) and a lateral dimension of about 10 micrometers. We will also present preliminary structural and property characterization, such as 4D STEM, Lorentz TEM, and MOKE, to study the magnetic properties of FGT plates. These results could demonstrate the potential applications of CVD-grown FGT plates and provide new ideas for nanostructure growth of ternary phases.