Multiferroicity in atomic van der Waals heterostructures
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Ulsan National Inst. of Science and Technology (Korea)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Materials that are simultaneously ferromagnetic and ferroelectric - multiferroics - promise the control of disparate ferroic orders, leading to technological advances in microwave magnetoelectric applications and next generation of spintronics. Single-phase multiferroics are challenged by the opposite d-orbital occupations imposed by the two ferroics, and heterogeneous nanocomposite multiferroics demand ingredients' structural compatibility with the resultant multiferroicity exclusively at inter-materials boundaries. Here we propose the two-dimensional heterostructure multiferroics by stacking up atomic layers of ferromagnetic Cr2Ge2Te6 and ferroelectric In2Se3, thereby leading to all-atomic multiferroicity. Through first-principles density functional theory calculations, we find as In2Se3 reverses its polarization, the magnetism of Cr2Ge2Te6 is switched, and correspondingly In2Se3 becomes a switchable magnetic semiconductor due to proximity effect. This unprecedented multiferroic duality (i.e., switchable ferromagnet and switchable magnetic semiconductor) enables both layers for logic applications. Van der Waals heterostructure multiferroics open the door for exploring the low-dimensional magnetoelectric physics and spintronic applications based on artificial superlattices.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- OSTI ID:
- 1559228
- Journal Information:
- Nature Communications, Vol. 10, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Web of Science
Van der Waals Contact to 2D Semiconductors with a Switchable Electric Dipole: Achieving Both n‐ and p‐Type Ohmic Contacts to Metals with a Wide Range of Work Functions
|
journal | December 2019 |
Van der Waals magnets: Wonder building blocks for two‐dimensional spintronics?
|
journal | October 2019 |
Interfacial coupling induced critical thickness for the ferroelectric bistability of two-dimensional ferromagnet/ferroelectric van der Waals heterostructures
|
journal | December 2019 |
Similar Records
Voltage control of magnetism in Fe3-xGeTe2/In2Se3 van der Waals ferromagnetic/ferroelectric heterostructures
Flexible Multiferroic Bulk Heterojunction with Giant Magnetoelectric Coupling via van der Waals Epitaxy