Recent advances in two-dimensional ferromagnetism: strain-, doping-, structural- and electric field-engineering toward spintronic applications

Since the first report on truly two-dimensional (2D) magnetic materials in 2017, a wide variety of merging 2D magnetic materials with unusual physical characteristics have been discovered and thus provide an effective platform for exploring the associated novel 2D spintronic devices, which have been made significant progress in both theoretical and experimental studies. Herein, we make a comprehensive review on the recent scientific endeavors and advances on the various engineering strategies on 2D ferromagnets, such as strain-, doping-, structural- and electric field-engineering, toward practical spintronic applications, including spin tunneling junctions, spin field-effect transistors and spin logic gate, etc. In the last, we discuss on current challenges and future opportunities in this field, which may provide useful guidelines for scientists who are exploring the fundamental physical properties and practical spintronic devices of low-dimensional magnets.