Ferroelectric Control of Polarity of the Spin‐polarized Current in Van Der Waals Multiferroic Heterostructures

Abstract

AbstractFerroelectric (FE) control of magnetism at nanoscale, for instance, FE control of the polarity of spin‐polarized current is crucial for technological advances in magnetoelectric and spintronic applications. However, this fascinating functionality has not been reported in nanoscale systems yet. Herein, a new class of FE/A‐type antiferromagnetic heterobilayer/FE van der Waals (vdW) multiferroic structures is found, in which the FE control of polarity of spin‐polarized current is found possible. Take Sc2CO2/CrSiTe3/CrGeTe3/Sc2CO2 heterostructure as a successful example. First‐principles calculations reveal that its polarity of half‐metallicity can be switched by flipping the FE polarization orientation. Meanwhile, device transport simulation shows that its up/down spin current transmission ratio is as large as 0.1 × 103 at Sc2CO2 configuration and is only 2.6 × 10−3 at Sc2CO2 configuration in the vdW multiferroic heterostructures. Essentially, it stems from the reversible FE switch of the internal electric field across the CrSiTe3/CrGeTe3 heterobilayer and the FE control of the interfacial effect between Sc2CO2 and Cr(Si/Ge)Te3 layers. This work opens a direction for constructing low‐energy‐dissipation, non‐volatile, and high‐sensitive spintronic devices such as spin field‐effect transistors.