HIGHLIGHTS • The recent progress of spin injection, spin transport, spin manipulation, and application in 2D materials was summarized. • The current challenges and outlook of future studies in spintronics based on 2D materials and related heterostructures were discussed. ABSTRACT Spintronics, exploiting the spin degree of electrons as the information vector, is an attractive field for implementing the beyond Complemetary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) devices. Recently, two-dimensional (2D) materials have been drawing tremendous attention in spintronics owing to their distinctive spin-dependent properties, such as the ultra-long spin relaxation time of graphene and the spin-valley locking of transition metal dichalcogenides. Moreover, the related heterostructures provide an unprecedented probability of combining the different characteristics via proximity effect, which could remedy the limitation of individual 2D materials. Hence, the proximity engineering has been growing extremely fast and has made significant achievements in the spin injection and manipulation. Nevertheless, there are still challenges toward practical application; for example, the mechanism of spin relaxation in 2D materials is unclear, and the high-efficiency spin gating is not yet achieved. In this review, we focus on 2D materials and related heterostructures to systematically summarize the progress of the spin injection, transport, manipulation, and application for information storage and processing. We also highlight the current challenges and future perspectives on the studies of spintronic devices based on 2D materials.

Nonlinear optical effects in layered two-dimensional transition metal chalcogenides have been extensively explored recently because of the promising prospect of the nonlinear optical effects for various optoelectronic applications. However, these materials possess sizable bandgaps ranging from visible to ultraviolet region, so the investigation of narrow-bandgap materials remains deficient. Here, we report our comprehensive study on the nonlinear optical processes in palladium diselenide (PdSe2) that has a near-infrared bandgap. Interestingly, this material exhibits a unique thickness-dependent second harmonic generation feature, which is in contrast to other transition metal chalcogenides. Furthermore, the two-photon absorption coefficients of 1–3 layer PdSe2 (β ~ 4.16 × 105, 2.58 × 105, and 1.51 × 105 cm GW−1) are larger by two and three orders of magnitude than that of the conventional two-dimensional materials, and giant modulation depths (αs ~ 32%, 27%, and 24%) were obtained in 1–3 layer PdSe2. Such unique nonlinear optical characteristics make PdSe2 a potential candidate for technological innovations in nonlinear optoelectronic devices.

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Recent advances in moiré superlattices and moiré excitons, such as quantum emission arrays, low-energy flat bands, and Mott insulators, have rapidly attracted attention in the fields of optoelectronics, materials, and energy research.