using X-ray Magnetic Linear Dichroism (XMLD).

As compared to ferromagnetic van der Waals (vdW) materials, there has not been many direct measurement on the antiferromagnetic vdW materials. In this talk, we present our experimental result on the bulk van der Waals antiferromagnet MnPS₃ using element-resolved X-ray Magnetic Linear Dichroism (XMLD). By taking the X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) at the Mn L-edge absorption energies at various temperatures and with two orthogonal linear polarizations of the x-rays, we show that the luminescence yield (LY) indicates a neat shape of XMLD while total electron yield (TEY) indicates charging effect due to its semiconductor energy gap. There exists a non-zero XMLD effect due to the Mn antiferromagnetic order. Temperature-dependent XMLD indicates that the Neel temperature of MnPS₃ is around ~78K, consistent with previous reports. XAS shows that all Mn elements in bulk MnPS₃ are at Mn²⁺ state.