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arXiv · 2012.03546

Van der Waals Multiferroic Tunnel Junctions

Yurong Su·Xinlu Li·Meng Zhu·Jia Zhang·Long You·Evgeny Y. Tsymbal
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Abstract

Multiferroic tunnel junctions (MFTJs) have aroused significant interest due to their functional properties useful for non-volatile memory devices. So far, however, all the existing MFTJs have been based on perovskite-oxide heterostructures limited by a relatively high resistance-area (RA) product unfavorable for practical applications. Here, using first-principles calculations, we explore spin-dependent transport properties of van der Waals (vdW) MFTJs which consist of two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic FenGeTe2 (n = 3, 4, 5) electrodes and 2D ferroelectric In2Se3 barrier layers. We demonstrate that such FemGeTe2/In2Se3/FenGeTe2 (m, n = 3, 4, 5) MFTJs exhibit multiple non-volatile resistance states associated with different polarization orientation of the ferroelectric In2Se3 layer and magnetization alignment of the two ferromagnetic FenGeTe2 layers. We find a remarkably low RA product which makes the proposed vdW MFTJs superior to the conventional MFTJs in terms of their promise for non-volatile memory applications.

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Yurong Su, Xinlu Li, Meng Zhu, Jia Zhang, Long You, Evgeny Y. Tsymbal. 2020-12-07. Van der Waals Multiferroic Tunnel Junctions. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.0c03452

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