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In 2017, researchers showed that a single atomic layer of chromium triiodide (CrI3) can retain ferromagnetic order. The result was significant because maintaining magnetic order in a two-dimensional material is difficult—and because CrI3’s magnetic behavior changed sharply as layers were added. The monolayer’s reported Curie temperature was 45 kelvin, far below room temperature.
How researchers made and detected an atom-thin magnet
CrI3 is a layered van der Waals crystal: its atomic sheets are held together more weakly than the atoms within each sheet. The team mechanically separated thin layers from bulk crystals using adhesive tape, a method commonly called exfoliation. A single isolated sheet is a monolayer; two stacked sheets form a bilayer.
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To detect magnetic order, the researchers used magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) microscopy, which measures changes in reflected light associated with a material’s magnetization. Their Nature paper states: “Here we use magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy to demonstrate that monolayer chromium triiodide (CrI3) is an Ising ferromagnet with out-of-plane spin orientation.” (Huang et al., Nature, 8 June 2017; see also Chemistry World’s 12 June 2017 report.)
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What changed as CrI3 layers were stacked?
Layer count did not produce a simple, steadily stronger magnet. The original study reported distinct behavior at different thicknesses:
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| CrI3 thickness | Reported magnetic behavior |
|---|---|
| Monolayer | Out-of-plane Ising ferromagnetism; Curie temperature of 45 K, measured by Huang et al. in the 2017 study. |
| Bilayer | Suppressed magnetization with a metamagnetic effect. |
| Trilayer | Interlayer ferromagnetism restored, as in bulk CrI3. |
| Bulk crystal | Curie temperature of 61 K, measured by Huang et al. in the 2017 study. |
A Curie temperature marks the point above which a ferromagnet loses its spontaneous magnetic order. Thus, the reported 45 K monolayer result establishes low-temperature magnetism, not a permanent room-temperature magnet. The bilayer’s suppressed response also shows why it is misleading to assume that adding a layer always preserves or strengthens the same magnetic state.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why magnetic order in one layer mattered
In a two-dimensional material, thermal fluctuations make conventional long-range magnetic order difficult to sustain when spins can point freely in any direction. CrI3 behaves as an Ising ferromagnet: its spins favor an out-of-plane orientation rather than unrestricted rotation. That magnetic anisotropy helps stabilize order at finite temperature. As Huang and co-authors put it, “Magnetic anisotropy removes this restriction, however, and enables, for instance, the occurrence of two-dimensional Ising ferromagnetism.” (Nature, 2017.)
The finding was specific to CrI3 and its measured conditions; it does not mean that atomically thin materials generally behave as magnets. Its importance was demonstrating that magnetic order could persist at the monolayer limit in a suitable two-dimensional crystal.
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The work pointed toward possible future study of atomically thin magnets in sensing, data storage, magnetoelectronics, and interface phenomena. These were research directions, not products demonstrated by the 2017 experiment. The result gave researchers a material platform for investigating how magnetism changes with thickness and at interfaces.
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