According to the researchers, the magnet could make advances in next-gen memories, computing, spintronics – such as high-density, compact spintronic memory devices – and quantum physics. It was developed by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley.
“We’re the first to make a room-temperature 2D magnet that is chemically stable under ambient conditions,” said senior author Jie Yao, a faculty scientist in Berkeley Lab’s Materials Sciences Division and associate professor of materials science and engineering at UC Berkeley.
Graduate student at UC Berkeley, Rui Chen, added: “This discovery is exciting because it not only makes 2D magnetism possible at room temperature, but it also uncovers a new mechanism to realise 2D magnetic materials.”
The magnetic component of today’s memory devices is typically made of magnetic thin films. But at the atomic level, these magnetic films are still three...