Voltage control of magnetism in Fe3-xGeTe2/In2Se3 van der Waals ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 5605
• Main Authors: Eom, Jaeun, Lee, In Hak, Kee, Jung Yun, Cho, Minhyun, Seo, Jeongdae, Suh, Hoyoung, Choi, Hyung-Jin, Sim, Yumin, Chen, Shuzhang, Chang, Hye Jung, Baek, Seung-Hyub, Petrovic, Cedomir, Ryu, Hyejin, Jang, Chaun, Kim, Young Duck, Yang, Chan-Ho, Seong, Maeng-Je, Lee, Jin Hong, Park, Se Young, Choi, Jun Woo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 12.09.2023; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/301/119/1001; 639/766/119/1001; 639/766/119/997; Anisotropy; Coercivity; Density functional theory; Electric fields; Electric potential; Electrons; Ferroelectric materials; Ferroelectricity; Ferromagnetic materials; Heterostructures; Humanities and Social Sciences; Lattice parameters; Magnetic properties; Magnetism; multidisciplinary; Power management; Raman spectroscopy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Spintronics; Tensile strain; Voltage
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-41382-8

We investigate the voltage control of magnetism in a van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure device consisting of two distinct vdW materials, the ferromagnetic Fe 3- x GeTe 2 and the ferroelectric In 2 Se 3 . It is observed that gate voltages applied to the Fe 3- x GeTe 2 /In 2 Se 3 heterostructure device modulate the magnetic properties of Fe 3- x GeTe 2 with significant decrease in coercive field for both positive and negative voltages. Raman spectroscopy on the heterostructure device shows voltage-dependent increase in the in-plane In 2 Se 3 and Fe 3- x GeTe 2 lattice constants for both voltage polarities. Thus, the voltage-dependent decrease in the Fe 3- x GeTe 2 coercive field, regardless of the gate voltage polarity, can be attributed to the presence of in-plane tensile strain. This is supported by density functional theory calculations showing tensile-strain-induced reduction of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy, which in turn decreases the coercive field. Our results demonstrate an effective method to realize low-power voltage-controlled vdW spintronic devices utilizing the magnetoelectric effect in vdW ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures. The control of magnetism by electric field is an important goal for future development of low-power spintronics. Here, the authors demonstrate voltage control of magnetism in van der Waals ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructure devices via the strain-mediated magnetoelectric effect.