Tunneling current-controlled magnetic states in few-layer CrI<sub>3</sub>

ORAL

Abstract

Controlling two-dimensional (2D) magnetism is pivotal for developing novel spintronic devices utilizing 2D van der Waals (vdW) materials. While advancements such as giant tunneling magnetoresistance, electrostatic gating-induced magnetization transition, and twisted angle modulated magnetism in 2D vdW magnets have been moted, the influence of tunneling current in these magnet-based tunnel junctions remains under-explored. Here, we report on a novel discovery of tunneling-current-induced unidirectional spin state transition and stochastic switching in a few-layer CrI3. At a moderate tunneling current, we can deterministically switch the spin configurations between spin parallel and spin antiparallel states. This switching is attributed to the nonequilibrium spin accumulation in graphene electrodes. Furthermore, we detected stochastic switching between these SAP and SP states, with the probabilities tunable by the bias current. Our findings mark a significant advancement in controlling magnetic phase transitions in 2D vdW magnets.

*U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering award no. DE-SC0020074Wyoming NASA EPSCoR award no. 80NSSC19M0061U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) grant 2228841 NSF Cooperative Agreement no. DMR-2039351U.S. NSF CAREER grant DMR-1945023U.S. NSF grant ECCS‐1915849JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 19H05790, 20H00354 and 21H05233

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Presenters

  • ZhuangEn Fu

    • University of Wyoming

Authors

  • ZhuangEn Fu

    • University of Wyoming

  • Piumi I Samarawickrama

    • University of Wyoming

  • Piumi I Samarawickrama

    • University of Wyoming

  • Yanglin Zhu

    • Pennsylvania State University

  • Zhiqiang Mao

    • Pennsylvania State University
    • Pennslyvania State University

  • Kenji Watanabe

    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • NIMS
    • Research Center for Electronic and Optical Materials, National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Functional Materials, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
    • National Institute for Material Science

  • Takashi Taniguchi

    • Kyoto Univ
    • National Institute for Materials Science
    • Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics
    • Research Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science
    • National Institute for Materials Sciences
    • NIMS
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1 Namiki, Tsukuba 305-0044, Japan
    • National Institute for Material Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, NIMS, Japan
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, Tsukuba
    • National Institue for Materials Science
    • Kyoto University
    • National Institute of Materials Science
    • International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics and National Institute for Materials Science

  • Wenyong Wang

    • University of Wyoming

  • Yuri Dahnovsky

    • University of Wyoming

  • Mingzhong Wu

    • Colorado State University

  • TeYu Chien

    • University of Wyoming

  • Jinke Tang

    • University of Wyoming

  • Allan H MacDonald

    • University of Texas at Austin

  • Hua Chen

    • Colorado State University

  • Jifa Tian

    • University of Wyoming