X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) reveal the magnetic properties of intercalated europium metal under graphene on SiC(0001). Intercalation of Eu nano-clusters (average size 2.5 nm) between graphene and SiC substate are formed by deposition of Eu on epitaxially grown graphene that is subsequently annealed at various temperatures while keeping the integrity of the graphene layer. Using sum-rules analysis of the XMCD of Eu M4,5 edges at T=15 K, our samples show paramagnetic-like behavior with distinct anomaly at T ≈ 90 K which may be related to the N{\`e}el transition, TN = 91 K, of bulk metal Eu. We find no evidence of ferromagnetism due to EuO or antiferromagnetism due to Eu2O3 indicating that the graphene layer protects the intercalated metallic Eu against oxidation over months of exposure to atmospheric environment.
@article{arxiv.1710.07396,
title = {Intercalated europium metal in epitaxial graphene on SiC},
author = {Nathaniel A. Anderson and Myron Hupalo and David Keavney and Michael C. Tringides and David Vaknin},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.07396},
year = {2017}
}