Magnetics Business & Technology - Spring 2018 - 12

FEATURE ARTICLE

Scientists Discover a 2-D Magnet
by James Urton, UW News
Magnetic materials form the basis of technologies that play increasingly pivotal roles in our lives today, including sensing and
hard-disk data storage. But as our innovative dreams conjure
wishes for ever-smaller and faster devices, researchers are seeking new magnetic materials that are more compact, more efficient
and can be controlled using precise, reliable methods.
A team led by the University of Washington and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has for the first time discovered
magnetism in the 2-D world of monolayers, or materials that are
formed by a single atomic layer. The findings demonstrate that
magnetic properties can exist even in the 2-D realm - opening a
world of potential applications.

"What we have discovered here is an isolated 2-D material with
intrinsic magnetism, and the magnetism in the system is highly
robust," said Xiaodong Xu, a UW professor of physics and of materials science and engineering, and member of the UW's Clean
Energy Institute. "We envision that new information technologies
may emerge based on these new 2-D magnets."
Xu and MIT physics professor Pablo Jarillo-Herrero led the international team of scientists who proved that the material - chromium triiodide, or CrI3 - has magnetic properties in its monolayer
form.
Other groups, including co-author Michael McGuire at the Oak
Ridge National Laboratory, had previously shown that CrI3 - in
its multilayered, 3-D, bulk crystal form - is ferromagnetic. In ferromagnetic materials, the "spins" of constituent electrons, analogous to tiny, subatomic magnets, align in the same direction even
without an external magnetic field.
But no 3-D magnetic substance had previously retained its magnetic properties when thinned down to a single atomic sheet. In
fact, monolayer materials can demonstrate unique properties not
seen in their multilayered, 3-D forms.
"You simply cannot accurately predict what the electric, magnetic,
physical or chemical properties of a 2-D monolayer crystal will be
based on the behavior of its 3-D bulk counterpart," said co-lead
author and UW doctoral student Bevin Huang.

Side view of the latest 2-D material.Efren Navarro-Moratalla

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Magnetics Business & Technology - Spring 2018
