Imaging twisty magnets Twisting monolayers of graphene with respect to each other has led to a number of unusual correlated states. This approach has inspired researchers to try their hand at twisting two-dimensional (2D) magnets, but such experiments have proven a difficult challenge. Song et al . made structures out of layers of the 2D magnet chromium triiodide with a small twist angle (see the Perspective by Lado). Using nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond as a magnetometer, the authors imaged the magnetic domains in both twisted monolayer and twisted trilayer structures. For twisted trilayers, a periodic pattern of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic domains was revealed. —JS

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The emergence of atomically thin van der Waals magnets provides a new platform for the studies of two-dimensional magnetism and its applications. However, the widely used measurement methods in recent studies cannot provide quantitative information of the magnetization nor achieve nanoscale spatial resolution. These capabilities are essential to explore the rich properties of magnetic domains and spin textures. Here, we employ cryogenic scanning magnetometry using a single-electron spin of a nitrogen-vacancy center in a diamond probe to unambiguously prove the existence of magnetic domains and study their dynamics in atomically thin CrBr3. By controlling the magnetic domain evolution as a function of magnetic field, we find that the pinning effect is a dominant coercivity mechanism and determine the magnetization of a CrBr3 bilayer to be about 26 Bohr magnetons per square nanometer. The high spatial resolution of this technique enables imaging of magnetic domains and allows to locate the sites of defects that pin the domain walls and nucleate the reverse domains. Our work highlights scanning nitrogen-vacancy center magnetometry as a quantitative probe to explore nanoscale features in two-dimensional magnets.