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Epitaxial stabilization of magnetic GdAuSb/LaAuSb superlattices

Patrick J. Strohbeen¹, Soohyun Im ², Tamalika Samanta ¹, Zachary LaDuca¹, Dongxue Du¹, Estiaque H. Shourov ¹, Jessica L. McChesney ³, Fanny Rodolakis ³, Paul M. Voyles¹ et al.

Jason K. Kawasaki ^1,*

¹Department of Materials Science, University of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, USA
²Department of Materials Design and Innovation, The State University of New York, Buffalo, New York 14260, USA
³Argonne National Laboratory, 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, USA

^*Contact author: jkawasaki@wisc.edu

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Phys. Rev. Materials 10, 074421 – Published 19 August, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/18lw-9dl1

Abstract

We report the epitaxial stabilization of GdAuSb films and GdAuSb/LaAuSb superlattices via molecular beam epitaxy on (0001)-oriented ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$ substrates. GdAuSb crystallizes in the Au-Au dimerized YPtAs structure type (space group $P 6_{3} / m m c$ ), the same structure as the Dirac semimetal LaAuSb. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements show similar near $E_{F}$ bandstructures for GdAuSb and LaAuSb, plus a rigid band shift for GdAuSb toward more holelike behavior and corelike Gd $4 f$ states $\sim 9 eV$ below the Fermi energy. LaAuSb/GdAuSb superlattices exhibit sharp superlattice fringes by x-ray diffraction and atomically precise interfaces by scanning transmission electron microscopy. Superlattices display two transitions in temperature-dependent resistvity, compared to a single Néel temperature for thick GdAuSb films. Superlattices of $L n AuSb$ materials ( $L n =$ rare earth) with atomically abrupt interfaces offer an epitaxial platform for control of magnetic and topological order via tunable intralayer exchange and reduced dimensionality.

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