Is a one-atom-thick magnet possible? To answer this question, Korean researchers' long-running exploration of two-dimensional magnetism has taken root as a major field in the global physics community.
A research team led by Park Je-geun, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Seoul National University, said on the 22nd that it published a paper summarizing achievements and future tasks in two-dimensional magnetic van der Waals materials in Reviews of Modern Physics, an international journal in the field of physics.
Reviews of Modern Physics is a journal published by the American Physical Society that mainly carries articles summarizing key results and research trends in major areas of physics. The late Lee Hwiso, regarded as a world-class physicist, also published in this journal and made a name for himself in the international academic community.
The two-dimensional magnetism explored by Park's team deals with whether magnetic properties can be maintained even in materials as extremely thin as a single atomic layer. Most magnets we encounter in daily life have three-dimensional structures in which atoms are stacked in multiple layers, so their magnetism remains relatively stable. In contrast, whether such properties hold in two-dimensional materials at the level of a single atomic layer remained a long-standing problem in physics for more than 70 years.
The team has steadily studied this field for 15 years. In 2016, it opened the floodgates in the field by realizing two-dimensional magnetism for the first time in the world in a material composed of iron, phosphorus, and sulfur, iron phosphorus trisulfide.
The new paper is a kind of guide that brings together the research accumulated so far. It systematically covers the basic physics of two-dimensional magnetism, newly observed quantum phenomena, unresolved questions, and future research directions. The paper runs 88 pages, and would exceed 250 pages as a monograph.
At a briefing on the 20th, Park said, "Research pioneered by Korea in 2010 has grown into a field that produced more than 1,000 papers a year as of last year, and it has become a core area where major institutions in the United States, Europe, and China compete," adding, "It means Korea's basic science has leapt forward as a first mover that designs the world's rules."
The team also addressed industrial potential in the paper. If spin-based phenomena observed in two-dimensional magnetic materials can be precisely controlled, they could form the basis for technologies such as next-generation spintronics (an electronics technology that uses the magnetic properties of electrons) or quantum devices. If magnetic properties can be finely controlled in ultrathin materials, there is potential to develop new device technologies that store or process information in ways different from today.
However, Park noted, "We confirmed at the lab scale that new-concept devices can operate, but there is still a large gap before this becomes a product on the factory floor," adding, "Rather than leading directly to productization, these results are more appropriately viewed as foundational research for next-generation spintronics or quantum devices."
Park also emphasized that, with this achievement, the way Korea's scientific community supports research should change. "Instead of looking only at which journal a paper is in and how many citations it has, we should place more weight on whether a researcher opened a new field for the first time," Park said, adding, "In particular, even if the risk of failure is high, the national support system and the scientific ecosystem should be a 'perfect shield' so that young researchers who jump into new topics can persevere."
References
Reviews of Modern Physics (2026), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/2pff-xy6n