Spin-lattice coupling plays an important role in both formation and understanding of the magnetism in two-dimensional magnetic semiconductors (2DMS). In this paper, the steady pressure effects on the lattice structure, Raman resonances, and magnetization of a 2DMS Cr2Ge2Te6 have been studied by both experiments and first principles calculations. It is found that the bond length of Cr-Cr decreases, the angle of Cr-Te-Cr diverges from 90°, and the Raman modes Eg3 and Ag1 show an increase with the application of external pressure. Consequently, the magnetic phase transition temperature TC decreases from 66.6 K to 60.6 K (∼9%) as the pressure increases from 0 to 1 GPa. These pressure effects not only confirm the existence of strong spin-lattice coupling but also reveal the detailed information about the lattice deformation effect on the magnetic properties in such 2DMS, which would be a benefit for the further understanding and manipulation of the magnetism in 2D materials.

CrGeTe3 recently emerges as a new two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic semiconductor that is promising for spintronic device applications. Unlike CrSiTe3 whose magnetism can be understood using the 2D-Ising model, CrGeTe3 exhibits a smaller van der Waals gap and larger cleavage energy, which could lead to a transition of magnetic mechanism from 2D to 3D. To confirm this speculation, we investigate the critical behavior of CrGeTe3 around the second-order paramagnetic-ferromagnetic phase transition. We obtain the critical exponents estimated by several common experimental techniques including the modified Arrott plot, Kouvel-Fisher method and critical isotherm analysis, which show that the magnetism of CrGeTe3 follows the tricritical mean-field model with the critical exponents β, γ, and δ of 0.240±0.006, 1.000±0.005, and 5.070±0.006, respectively, at the Curie temperature of 67.9 K. We therefore suggest that the magnetic phase transition from 2D to 3D for CrGeTe3 should locate near a tricritical point. Our experiment provides a direct demonstration of the applicability of the tricritical mean-field model to a 2D ferromagnetic semiconductor.