IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v14y2023i1d10.1038_s41467-023-41077-0.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Large and tunable magnetoresistance in van der Waals ferromagnet/semiconductor junctions

Author

Listed:
  • Wenkai Zhu

    (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yingmei Zhu

    (Nanjing University)

  • Tong Zhou

    (University at Buffalo, State University of New York)

  • Xianpeng Zhang

    (University of Basel, Basel)

  • Hailong Lin

    (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Qirui Cui

    (Nanjing University)

  • Faguang Yan

    (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Ziao Wang

    (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Yongcheng Deng

    (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Hongxin Yang

    (Nanjing University)

  • Lixia Zhao

    (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Tiangong University)

  • Igor Žutić

    (University at Buffalo, State University of New York)

  • Kirill D. Belashchenko

    (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

  • Kaiyou Wang

    (Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences)

Abstract

Magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with conventional bulk ferromagnets separated by a nonmagnetic insulating layer are key building blocks in spintronics for magnetic sensors and memory. A radically different approach of using atomically-thin van der Waals (vdW) materials in MTJs is expected to boost their figure of merit, the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), while relaxing the lattice-matching requirements from the epitaxial growth and supporting high-quality integration of dissimilar materials with atomically-sharp interfaces. We report TMR up to 192% at 10 K in all-vdW Fe3GeTe2/GaSe/Fe3GeTe2 MTJs. Remarkably, instead of the usual insulating spacer, this large TMR is realized with a vdW semiconductor GaSe. Integration of semiconductors into the MTJs offers energy-band-tunability, bias dependence, magnetic proximity effects, and spin-dependent optical-selection rules. We demonstrate that not only the magnitude of the TMR is tuned by the semiconductor thickness but also the TMR sign can be reversed by varying the bias voltages, enabling modulation of highly spin-polarized carriers in vdW semiconductors.

Suggested Citation

  • Wenkai Zhu & Yingmei Zhu & Tong Zhou & Xianpeng Zhang & Hailong Lin & Qirui Cui & Faguang Yan & Ziao Wang & Yongcheng Deng & Hongxin Yang & Lixia Zhao & Igor Žutić & Kirill D. Belashchenko & Kaiyou Wa, 2023. "Large and tunable magnetoresistance in van der Waals ferromagnet/semiconductor junctions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-41077-0
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41077-0
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-41077-0
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-023-41077-0?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dmitrii Khokhriakov & Anamul Md. Hoque & Bogdan Karpiak & Saroj P. Dash, 2020. "Gate-tunable spin-galvanic effect in graphene-topological insulator van der Waals heterostructures at room temperature," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-7, December.
    2. Zhe Wang & Ignacio Gutiérrez-Lezama & Nicolas Ubrig & Martin Kroner & Marco Gibertini & Takashi Taniguchi & Kenji Watanabe & Ataç Imamoğlu & Enrico Giannini & Alberto F. Morpurgo, 2018. "Very large tunneling magnetoresistance in layered magnetic semiconductor CrI3," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-8, December.
    3. Markus Lindemann & Gaofeng Xu & Tobias Pusch & Rainer Michalzik & Martin R. Hofmann & Igor Žutić & Nils C. Gerhardt, 2019. "Ultrafast spin-lasers," Nature, Nature, vol. 568(7751), pages 212-215, April.
    4. Jinsong Xu & Simranjeet Singh & Jyoti Katoch & Guanzhong Wu & Tiancong Zhu & Igor Žutić & Roland K. Kawakami, 2018. "Spin inversion in graphene spin valves by gate-tunable magnetic proximity effect at one-dimensional contacts," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-6, December.
    5. Hyunsoo Yang & Sergio O. Valenzuela & Mairbek Chshiev & Sébastien Couet & Bernard Dieny & Bruno Dlubak & Albert Fert & Kevin Garello & Matthieu Jamet & Dae-Eun Jeong & Kangho Lee & Taeyoung Lee & Mari, 2022. "Two-dimensional materials prospects for non-volatile spintronic memories," Nature, Nature, vol. 606(7915), pages 663-673, June.
    6. Bevin Huang & Genevieve Clark & Efrén Navarro-Moratalla & Dahlia R. Klein & Ran Cheng & Kyle L. Seyler & Ding Zhong & Emma Schmidgall & Michael A. McGuire & David H. Cobden & Wang Yao & Di Xiao & Pabl, 2017. "Layer-dependent ferromagnetism in a van der Waals crystal down to the monolayer limit," Nature, Nature, vol. 546(7657), pages 270-273, June.
    7. Cheng Gong & Lin Li & Zhenglu Li & Huiwen Ji & Alex Stern & Yang Xia & Ting Cao & Wei Bao & Chenzhe Wang & Yuan Wang & Z. Q. Qiu & R. J. Cava & Steven G. Louie & Jing Xia & Xiang Zhang, 2017. "Discovery of intrinsic ferromagnetism in two-dimensional van der Waals crystals," Nature, Nature, vol. 546(7657), pages 265-269, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guangyi Chen & Shaomian Qi & Jianqiao Liu & Di Chen & Jiongjie Wang & Shili Yan & Yu Zhang & Shimin Cao & Ming Lu & Shibing Tian & Kangyao Chen & Peng Yu & Zheng Liu & X. C. Xie & Jiang Xiao & Ryuichi, 2021. "Electrically switchable van der Waals magnon valves," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-5, December.
    2. Sihua Feng & Hengli Duan & Hao Tan & Fengchun Hu & Chaocheng Liu & Yao Wang & Zhi Li & Liang Cai & Yuyang Cao & Chao Wang & Zeming Qi & Li Song & Xuguang Liu & Zhihu Sun & Wensheng Yan, 2023. "Intrinsic room-temperature ferromagnetism in a two-dimensional semiconducting metal-organic framework," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    3. Xing Cheng & Zhixuan Cheng & Cong Wang & Minglai Li & Pingfan Gu & Shiqi Yang & Yanping Li & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Wei Ji & Lun Dai, 2021. "Light helicity detector based on 2D magnetic semiconductor CrI3," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-6, December.
    4. Jaume Meseguer-Sánchez & Catalin Popescu & José Luis García-Muñoz & Hubertus Luetkens & Grigol Taniashvili & Efrén Navarro-Moratalla & Zurab Guguchia & Elton J. G. Santos, 2021. "Coexistence of structural and magnetic phases in van der Waals magnet CrI3," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
    5. Fengrui Yao & Volodymyr Multian & Zhe Wang & Nicolas Ubrig & Jérémie Teyssier & Fan Wu & Enrico Giannini & Marco Gibertini & Ignacio Gutiérrez-Lezama & Alberto F. Morpurgo, 2023. "Multiple antiferromagnetic phases and magnetic anisotropy in exfoliated CrBr3 multilayers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    6. ZhuangEn Fu & Piumi I. Samarawickrama & John Ackerman & Yanglin Zhu & Zhiqiang Mao & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Wenyong Wang & Yuri Dahnovsky & Mingzhong Wu & TeYu Chien & Jinke Tang & Allan, 2024. "Tunneling current-controlled spin states in few-layer van der Waals magnets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Myeongjin Jang & Sol Lee & Fernando Cantos-Prieto & Ivona Košić & Yue Li & Arthur R. C. McCray & Min-Hyoung Jung & Jun-Yeong Yoon & Loukya Boddapati & Francis Leonard Deepak & Hu Young Jeong & Charuda, 2024. "Direct observation of twisted stacking domains in the van der Waals magnet CrI3," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    8. Qifeng Hu & Yuqiang Huang & Yang Wang & Sujuan Ding & Minjie Zhang & Chenqiang Hua & Linjun Li & Xiangfan Xu & Jinbo Yang & Shengjun Yuan & Kenji Watanabe & Takashi Taniguchi & Yunhao Lu & Chuanhong J, 2024. "Ferrielectricity controlled widely-tunable magnetoelectric coupling in van der Waals multiferroics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Chenhui Zhang & Ze Jiang & Jiawei Jiang & Wa He & Junwei Zhang & Fanrui Hu & Shishun Zhao & Dongsheng Yang & Yakun Liu & Yong Peng & Hongxin Yang & Hyunsoo Yang, 2024. "Above-room-temperature chiral skyrmion lattice and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction in a van der Waals ferromagnet Fe3−xGaTe2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    10. Sarah Jenkins & Levente Rózsa & Unai Atxitia & Richard F. L. Evans & Kostya S. Novoselov & Elton J. G. Santos, 2022. "Breaking through the Mermin-Wagner limit in 2D van der Waals magnets," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    11. Yongxi Ou & Wilson Yanez & Run Xiao & Max Stanley & Supriya Ghosh & Boyang Zheng & Wei Jiang & Yu-Sheng Huang & Timothy Pillsbury & Anthony Richardella & Chaoxing Liu & Tony Low & Vincent H. Crespi & , 2022. "ZrTe2/CrTe2: an epitaxial van der Waals platform for spintronics," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    12. Hongjun Xu & Ke Jia & Yuan Huang & Fanqi Meng & Qinghua Zhang & Yu Zhang & Chen Cheng & Guibin Lan & Jing Dong & Jinwu Wei & Jiafeng Feng & Congli He & Zhe Yuan & Mingliang Zhu & Wenqing He & Caihua W, 2023. "Electrical detection of spin pumping in van der Waals ferromagnetic Cr2Ge2Te6 with low magnetic damping," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    13. Jun Cui & Emil Viñas Boström & Mykhaylo Ozerov & Fangliang Wu & Qianni Jiang & Jiun-Haw Chu & Changcun Li & Fucai Liu & Xiaodong Xu & Angel Rubio & Qi Zhang, 2023. "Chirality selective magnon-phonon hybridization and magnon-induced chiral phonons in a layered zigzag antiferromagnet," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    14. Shun Akatsuka & Sebastian Esser & Shun Okumura & Ryota Yambe & Rinsuke Yamada & Moritz M. Hirschmann & Seno Aji & Jonathan S. White & Shang Gao & Yoshichika Onuki & Taka-hisa Arima & Taro Nakajima & M, 2024. "Non-coplanar helimagnetism in the layered van-der-Waals metal DyTe3," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    15. Jing-Jing Xian & Cong Wang & Jin-Hua Nie & Rui Li & Mengjiao Han & Junhao Lin & Wen-Hao Zhang & Zhen-Yu Liu & Zhi-Mo Zhang & Mao-Peng Miao & Yangfan Yi & Shiwei Wu & Xiaodie Chen & Junbo Han & Zhengca, 2022. "Spin mapping of intralayer antiferromagnetism and field-induced spin reorientation in monolayer CrTe2," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    16. Shivam N. Kajale & Thanh Nguyen & Corson A. Chao & David C. Bono & Artittaya Boonkird & Mingda Li & Deblina Sarkar, 2024. "Current-induced switching of a van der Waals ferromagnet at room temperature," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    17. Guanghui Cheng & Mohammad Mushfiqur Rahman & Zhiping He & Andres Llacsahuanga Allcca & Avinash Rustagi & Kirstine Aggerbeck Stampe & Yanglin Zhu & Shaohua Yan & Shangjie Tian & Zhiqiang Mao & Hechang , 2022. "Emergence of electric-field-tunable interfacial ferromagnetism in 2D antiferromagnet heterostructures," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-6, December.
    18. Gaojie Zhang & Fei Guo & Hao Wu & Xiaokun Wen & Li Yang & Wen Jin & Wenfeng Zhang & Haixin Chang, 2022. "Above-room-temperature strong intrinsic ferromagnetism in 2D van der Waals Fe3GaTe2 with large perpendicular magnetic anisotropy," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    19. Weng Fu Io & Sin -Yi Pang & Lok Wing Wong & Yuqian Zhao & Ran Ding & Jianfeng Mao & Yifei Zhao & Feng Guo & Shuoguo Yuan & Jiong Zhao & Jiabao Yi & Jianhua Hao, 2023. "Direct observation of intrinsic room-temperature ferroelectricity in 2D layered CuCrP2S6," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    20. Linfeng Ai & Enze Zhang & Jinshan Yang & Xiaoyi Xie & Yunkun Yang & Zehao Jia & Yuda Zhang & Shanshan Liu & Zihan Li & Pengliang Leng & Xiangyu Cao & Xingdan Sun & Tongyao Zhang & Xufeng Kou & Zheng H, 2021. "Van der Waals ferromagnetic Josephson junctions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-41077-0. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.