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Metallic ferromagnetic transition metal dichalcogenides have emerged as important building blocks for scalable magnonics and memory applications. Downscaling such systems to the ultra-thin limit is critical to integrate them into technology. Here, we achieved layer-by-layer control over the transition metal dichalcogenide Cr$_{1.6}$Te$_{2}$ by using pulsed laser deposition, and we uncovered the minimum critical thickness above which room temperature magnetic order is maintained. The electronic and magnetic structure is explored experimentally and theoretically and it is shown that the films exhibit strong in-plane magnetic anisotropy as a consequence of large spin-orbit effects. Our study elucidates both magnetic and electronic properties of Cr$_{1.6}$Te$_{2}$, and corroborates the importance of intercalation to tune the magnetic properties of nanoscale materials architectures., Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures

The experimental observation that vanadate superlattices (LaVO$_3$)$_m$/SrVO$_3$ show ferromagnetism up to room temperature [U.\ L\"uders {\it et al.}, Phys.\ Rev.\ B {\bf 80}, 241102R (2009)] is investigated by means of density functional theory. First, the influence of the density functional on the electronic and magnetic structure of bulk ${\rm LaVO_3}$ is discussed. Second, the band structure of a (LaVO$_3$)$_m$/SrVO$_3$ slab for $m=5$ and 6 is calculated. Very different behaviors for odd and even values of $m$ are found: In the odd case lattice relaxation results into a buckling of the interface VO$_2$ layers that leads to spin-polarized interfaces. In the even case a decoupling of the interface VO$_2$ layers from the LaO layers is obtained, confining the interface electrons into a two-dimensional electron gas. The orbital reconstruction at the interface due to the lattice relaxation is discussed., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures