Physics Department, Boston College, Boston, MA, USA.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
Nature. 2018 Nov;563(7729):47-52. doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0631-z. Epub 2018 Oct 31.
The discovery of materials has often introduced new physical paradigms and enabled the development of novel devices. Two-dimensional magnetism, which is associated with strong intrinsic spin fluctuations, has long been the focus of fundamental questions in condensed matter physics regarding our understanding and control of new phases. Here we discuss magnetic van der Waals materials: two-dimensional atomic crystals that contain magnetic elements and thus exhibit intrinsic magnetic properties. These cleavable materials provide the ideal platform for exploring magnetism in the two-dimensional limit, where new physical phenomena are expected, and represent a substantial shift in our ability to control and investigate nanoscale phases. We present the theoretical background and motivation for investigating this class of crystals, describe the material landscape and the current experimental status of measurement techniques as well as devices, and discuss promising future directions for the study of magnetic van der Waals materials.
材料的发现常常带来新的物理范式，并为新型器件的发展提供了可能。二维磁性与强烈的固有自旋涨落有关，长期以来一直是凝聚态物理中关于我们对新相的理解和控制的基本问题的焦点。在这里，我们讨论磁性范德华材料：二维原子晶体，其中包含磁性元素，因此表现出固有磁性。这些可剥离的材料为探索二维极限中的磁性提供了理想的平台，在二维极限中有望出现新的物理现象，并且代表着我们控制和研究纳米级相的能力的重大转变。我们介绍了研究这类晶体的理论背景和动机，描述了材料领域以及当前测量技术和器件的实验现状，并讨论了磁性范德华材料研究的有前景的未来方向。
