Tunneling current-controlled spin states in few-layer van der Waals magnets

Abstract

Effective control of magnetic phases in two-dimensional magnets would constitute crucial progress in spintronics, holding great potential for future computing technologies. Here, we report a new approach of leveraging tunneling current as a tool for controlling spin states in CrI3. We reveal that a tunneling current can deterministically switch between spin-parallel and spin-antiparallel states in few-layer CrI3, depending on the polarity and amplitude of the current. We propose a mechanism involving nonequilibrium spin accumulation in the graphene electrodes in contact with the CrI3 layers. We further demonstrate tunneling current-tunable stochastic switching between multiple spin states of the CrI3 tunnel devices, which goes beyond conventional bi-stable stochastic magnetic tunnel junctions and has not been documented in two-dimensional magnets. Our findings not only address the existing knowledge gap concerning the influence of tunneling currents in controlling the magnetism in two-dimensional magnets, but also unlock possibilities for energy-efficient probabilistic and neuromorphic computing.

23 pages, 4 figures

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Cited by in corpus (2)

• Anomalous Tunneling Magnetoresistance Oscillation and Electrically Tunable Tunneling Anisotropic Magnetoresistance in Few-layer CrPS4
• Nitrogen-Vacancy Magnetometry of Edge Magnetism in WS2 Flakes