Electrical gate control of spin current in van der Waals heterostructures at room temperature

André Dankert,Saroj P Dash

doi:10.1038/ncomms16093

André Dankert, Saroj P Dash

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms16093

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Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals offer a unique platform due to their remarkable and contrasting spintronic properties, such as weak spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in graphene and strong SOC in molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). Here we combine graphene and MoS2 in a van der Waals heterostructure (vdWh) to demonstrate the electric gate control of the spin current and spin lifetime at room temperature. By performing non-local spin valve and Hanle measurements, we unambiguously prove the gate tunability of the spin current and spin lifetime in graphene/MoS2 vdWhs at 300 K. This unprecedented control over the spin parameters by orders of magnitude stems from the gate tuning of the Schottky barrier at the MoS2/graphene interface and MoS2 channel conductivity leading to spin dephasing in high-SOC material. Our findings demonstrate an all-electrical spintronic device at room temperature with the creation, transport and control of the spin in 2D materials heterostructures, which can be key building blocks in future device architectures.

Highlights

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals offer a unique platform due to their remarkable and contrasting spintronic properties, such as weak spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in graphene and strong SOC in molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)
The fundamental spintronic device concepts, such as creation, manipulation and detection of spin current has been demonstrated in semiconductors[3,4,5] and spin transistor structures[6,7,8,9] using both electrical and optical methods
Graphene has been demonstrated as an excellent material for spin transport and spin logic devices due to the low spin–orbit coupling (SOC) and high electron mobility[11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]

Summary

Introduction

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals offer a unique platform due to their remarkable and contrasting spintronic properties, such as weak spin–orbit coupling (SOC) in graphene and strong SOC in molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). We combine graphene and MoS2 in a van der Waals heterostructure (vdWh) to demonstrate the electric gate control of the spin current and spin lifetime at room temperature. By performing non-local spin valve and Hanle measurements, we unambiguously prove the gate tunability of the spin current and spin lifetime in graphene/MoS2 vdWhs at 300 K. This unprecedented control over the spin parameters by orders of magnitude stems from the gate tuning of the Schottky barrier at the MoS2/graphene interface and MoS2 channel conductivity leading to spin dephasing in high-SOC material. Our findings demonstrate an all-electrical spintronic device at room temperature with the creation, transport and control of the spin in 2D materials heterostructures, which can be key building blocks in future device architectures

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