Imaging the Magnetic Anisotropy in Ultrathin Fe₄GeTe₂ with a Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetometer

Two-dimensional (2D) FeGeTe₂, with n = 3, 4, and 5, has been realized in experiments, showing strong magnetic anisotropy with enhanced critical temperature (T_c). The understanding of its magnetic anisotropy is crucial for the exploration of more stable 2D magnets and its spintronic applications. Here, we report a quantitative reconstruction of the magnetization magnitude and its direction in ultrathin Fe₄GeTe₂ using nitrogen vacancy centers. Through imaging stray magnetic fields, we identified the spin-flop transition at approximately 80 K, resulting in a change of the easy axis from the out-of-plane direction to the in-plane direction. Moreover, by analyzing the thermally activated escape behavior of the magnetization near T_c in terms of the Ginzburg-Landau model, we observed the in-plane magnetic anisotropy effect and the formation capability of magnetic domains at ∼0.4 μm² μT^-1. Our findings contribute to the quantitative understanding of the magnetic anisotropy effect in a vast range of 2D van der Waals magnets.