Professor Park Je-geun / Courtesy of Seoul National University
A specialized field of physics born in a Korean laboratory received a definitive seal of global recognition, marking a rare instance where a locally pioneered theory has been elevated to an international reference standard.
The Ministry of Science and ICT said Wednesday that a comprehensive review of two-dimensional van der Waals magnetism, led by Park Je-geun, a professor at Seoul National University's department of physics and astronomy, has been published in Reviews of Modern Physics. Issued by the American Physical Society, the journal is widely regarded as the most selective in the field, typically reserved for senior authorities whose work defines the trajectory of entire subdisciplines.
The 88-page paper synthesizes more than 15 years of inquiry into a fundamental question: Can magnetism survive in materials only one atomic layer thick? While the theoretical possibility was first proposed in 1943 by the Nobel laureate Lars Onsager, a Norwegian American theoretical physicist and physical chemist, the hypothesis remained unproven for decades, languishing as a classic problem of condensed matter physics.
That impasse was broken in 2016 when Park’s team experimentally demonstrated two-dimensional magnetism in a layered iron phosphorus sulfide compound at minus 118 degrees Celsius. The discovery effectively opened a new research frontier, proving that magnetic properties could indeed persist in a near-singular plane.
The new review, co-authored by seven leading researchers from Korea and the United States, compiles a decade of experimental breakthroughs and quantum spin behaviors. It also details emerging applications in spintronics — a field that uses the intrinsic spin of electrons for microelectronics — and quantum devices, while outlining the unresolved challenges expected to guide global research for years to come.
"What began in Korea has become a global field with more than 1,000 papers a year across major research institutions," Park said, reflecting on the discipline's rapid expansion.
Government officials noted that publication in Reviews of Modern Physics is exceptionally rare for Korean scientists, serving as a formal acknowledgment of the country's growing influence in basic science. A ministry official signaled that the government intends to maintain long-term investments in fundamental research, framing such academic milestones as the necessary precursors to future technological breakthroughs.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.
Source: Korea Times News
