Experimental evidence of magnetism in a 2D electron gas at the CoO/CoO interface by employing EMCD.

In the present study we investigate the CoO/CoO interface in order to determine its intriguing magnetic behavior, which can be utilized for tailoring magnetic properties, enabling spin transport, enhancing magnetic coupling, tuning device functionalities, and realizing miniaturized magnetic devices for various technological applications. We decipher the magnetic properties of the CoO/CoO interface from first principles calculations using Wien2k and probe them experimentally by employing electron energy-loss magnetic chiral dichroism (EMCD), which is an electron-energy loss spectrometry (EELS) based technique in the transmission electron microscope (TEM). Both, theory and experiment, are in perfect agreement and result in a ferromagnetic 2D-electron gas of 5Å thickness directly at the interface.