Thickness dependent oxidation in CrCl₃: a scanning X-ray photoemission and Kelvin probe microscopies study

• Shafaq Kazim,
• Rahul Parmar,
• Maryam Azizinia,
• Matteo Amati,
• Muhammad Rauf,
• Andrea Di Cicco,
• Seyed Javid Rezvani,
• Dario Mastrippolito,
• Luca Ottaviano,
• Tomasz Klimczuk,
• Luca Gregoratti and
• Roberto Gunnella

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2025, 16, 749–761, doi:10.3762/bjnano.16.58

• particular technological interest, even more in the case of chromium trihalides (CrX3, X = Cl, Br, and I), whose longer lifetime under ambient conditions is particularly intriguing. By using synchrotron-based scanning photoelectron microscopy with a resolution of 0.1 μm and Kelvin probe force microscopy, we

• oxidation or the introduction of surface vacancies, a novel and versatile approach is unveiled for the development of low-dimensional multifunctional nanodevices. Keywords: chemical mapping; CrX3; Kelvin probe force microscopy; mechanical exfoliation; scanning photoelectron microscopy (SPEM); two

• importance, limited experimental research has been conducted on the electronic structure of CrX3 [5][6]. According to previously published photoelectron spectroscopy results, CrX3 belongs to metal compounds in which the 3d states are very close to the Fermi level, significantly above the 3p/4p/5p states of