Tunable spin injection and detection across a van der Waals interface

Abstract

The authors investigate tunnelling magnetoresistance in Fe3GeTe2/hBN(WSe2)/Fe3GeTe2 magnetic tunnel junctions and report strong variations with bias including polarization reversals. Van der Waals heterostructures with two-dimensional magnets offer a magnetic junction with an atomically sharp and clean interface. This attribute ensures that the magnetic layers maintain their intrinsic spin-polarized electronic states and spin-flipping scattering processes at a minimum level, a trait that can expand spintronic device functionalities. Here, using a van der Waals assembly of ferromagnetic Fe3GeTe2 with non-magnetic hexagonal boron nitride and WSe2 layers, we demonstrate electrically tunable, highly transparent spin injection and detection across the van der Waals interfaces. By varying an electrical bias, the net spin polarization of the injected carriers can be modulated and reversed in polarity, which leads to sign changes of the tunnelling magnetoresistance. We attribute the spin polarization reversals to sizable contributions from high-energy localized spin states in the metallic ferromagnet, so far inaccessible in conventional magnetic junctions. Such tunability of the spin-valve operations opens a promising route for the electronic control of next-generation low-dimensional spintronic device applications.