Fully Electrically Controlled van der Waals Multiferroic Tunnel Junctions.

Yu, Xing; Zhang, Xiwen; Wang, Jinlan · ACS Nano · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The fully electrical control of the magnetic states in magnetic tunnel junctions is highly pursued for the development of the next generation of low-power and high-density information technology. However, achieving this functionality remains a formidable challenge at present. Here we propose an effective strategy by constructing a trilayer van der Waals multiferroic structure, consisting of CrI<sub>3</sub>-AgBiPSe<sub>6</sub> and Cr<sub>2</sub>Ge<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>6</sub>-In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>, to achieve full-electrical control of multiferroic tunnel junctions. Within this structure, two different magnetic states of the magnetic bilayers (CrI<sub>3</sub>/Cr<sub>2</sub>Ge<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>6</sub>) can be modulated and switched in response to the polarization direction of the adjacent ferroelectric materials (AgBiPSe<sub>6</sub>/In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>). The intriguing magnetization reversal is mainly attributed to the polarization-field-induced band structure shift and interfacial charge transfer. On this basis, we further design two multiferroic tunnel junction devices, namely, graphene/CrI<sub>3</sub>-AgBiPSe<sub>6</sub>/graphene and graphene/Cr<sub>2</sub>Ge<sub>2</sub>Te<sub>6</sub>-In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub>/graphene. In these devices, good interfacial Ohmic contacts are successfully obtained between the graphene electrode and the heterojunction, leading to an ultimate tunneling magnetoresistance of 9.3 × 10<sup>6</sup>%. This study not only proposes a feasible strategy and identifies a promising candidate for achieving fully electrically controlled multiferroic tunnel junctions but also provides insights for designing other advanced spintronic devices.