Giant tunneling magnetoresistance in spin-filter van der Waals heterostructures

Tiancheng Song; Xinghan Cai; Matisse Wei Yuan Tu; Xiaoou Zhang; Bevin Huang; Nathan P. Wilson; Kyle L. Seyler; Lin Zhu; Takashi Taniguchi; Kenji Watanabe; Michael A. McGuire; David H. Cobden; Di Xiao; Wang Yao; Xiaodong Xu

doi:10.1126/science.aar4851

Giant tunneling magnetoresistance in spin-filter van der Waals heterostructures

Tiancheng Song, Xinghan Cai, Matisse Wei Yuan Tu, Xiaoou Zhang, Bevin Huang, Nathan P. Wilson, Kyle L. Seyler, Lin Zhu, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Michael A. McGuire, David H. Cobden, Di Xiao, Wang Yao, Xiaodong Xu

Correlated Electron Materials

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

966 Scopus citations

Abstract

Magnetic multilayer devices that exploit magnetoresistance are the backbone of magnetic sensing and data storage technologies. Here, we report multiple-spin-filter magnetic tunnel junctions (sf-MTJs) based on van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures in which atomically thin chromium triiodide (CrI ₃ ) acts as a spin-filter tunnel barrier sandwiched between graphene contacts. We demonstrate tunneling magnetoresistance that is drastically enhanced with increasing CrI ₃ layer thickness, reaching a record 19,000% for magnetic multilayer structures using four-layer sf-MTJs at low temperatures. Using magnetic circular dichroism measurements, we attribute these effects to the intrinsic layer-by-layer antiferromagnetic ordering of the atomically thin CrI ₃ . Our work reveals the possibility to push magnetic information storage to the atomically thin limit and highlights CrI ₃ as a superlative magnetic tunnel barrier for vdW heterostructure spintronic devices.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1214-1218
Number of pages	5
Journal	Science
Volume	360
Issue number	6394
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aar4851
State	Published - 2018

Funding

Work at the University of Washington was mainly supported by the Department of Energy, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division (DE-SC0018171). Device fabrication and part of transport measurements are supported by NSF-DMR-1708419, NSF MRSEC 1719797, and UW Innovation Award. D.H.C.’s contribution is supported by DE-SC0002197. Work at CMU is supported by DOE BES DE-SC0012509. Work at HKU is supported by the Croucher Foundation (Croucher Innovation Award), UGC of HKSAR (AoE/P-04/08), and the HKU ORA. Work at ORNL (M.A.M.) was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division. K.W. and T.T. acknowledge support from the Elemental Strategy Initiative conducted by the MEXT, Japan, and JSPS KAKENHI grant number JP15K21722. D.X. acknowledges the support of a Cottrell Scholar Award. X.X. acknowledges the support from the State of Washington–funded Clean Energy Institute and from the Boeing Distinguished Professorship in Physics.

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title = "Giant tunneling magnetoresistance in spin-filter van der Waals heterostructures",

abstract = " Magnetic multilayer devices that exploit magnetoresistance are the backbone of magnetic sensing and data storage technologies. Here, we report multiple-spin-filter magnetic tunnel junctions (sf-MTJs) based on van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures in which atomically thin chromium triiodide (CrI 3 ) acts as a spin-filter tunnel barrier sandwiched between graphene contacts. We demonstrate tunneling magnetoresistance that is drastically enhanced with increasing CrI 3 layer thickness, reaching a record 19,000% for magnetic multilayer structures using four-layer sf-MTJs at low temperatures. Using magnetic circular dichroism measurements, we attribute these effects to the intrinsic layer-by-layer antiferromagnetic ordering of the atomically thin CrI 3 . Our work reveals the possibility to push magnetic information storage to the atomically thin limit and highlights CrI 3 as a superlative magnetic tunnel barrier for vdW heterostructure spintronic devices.",

author = "Tiancheng Song and Xinghan Cai and Tu, {Matisse Wei Yuan} and Xiaoou Zhang and Bevin Huang and Wilson, {Nathan P.} and Seyler, {Kyle L.} and Lin Zhu and Takashi Taniguchi and Kenji Watanabe and McGuire, {Michael A.} and Cobden, {David H.} and Di Xiao and Wang Yao and Xiaodong Xu",

year = "2018",

doi = "10.1126/science.aar4851",

language = "English",

volume = "360",

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AU - Song, Tiancheng

AU - Cai, Xinghan

AU - Tu, Matisse Wei Yuan

AU - Zhang, Xiaoou

AU - Huang, Bevin

AU - Wilson, Nathan P.

AU - Seyler, Kyle L.

AU - Zhu, Lin

AU - Taniguchi, Takashi

AU - Watanabe, Kenji

AU - McGuire, Michael A.

AU - Cobden, David H.

AU - Xiao, Di

AU - Yao, Wang

AU - Xu, Xiaodong

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Magnetic multilayer devices that exploit magnetoresistance are the backbone of magnetic sensing and data storage technologies. Here, we report multiple-spin-filter magnetic tunnel junctions (sf-MTJs) based on van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures in which atomically thin chromium triiodide (CrI 3 ) acts as a spin-filter tunnel barrier sandwiched between graphene contacts. We demonstrate tunneling magnetoresistance that is drastically enhanced with increasing CrI 3 layer thickness, reaching a record 19,000% for magnetic multilayer structures using four-layer sf-MTJs at low temperatures. Using magnetic circular dichroism measurements, we attribute these effects to the intrinsic layer-by-layer antiferromagnetic ordering of the atomically thin CrI 3 . Our work reveals the possibility to push magnetic information storage to the atomically thin limit and highlights CrI 3 as a superlative magnetic tunnel barrier for vdW heterostructure spintronic devices.

AB - Magnetic multilayer devices that exploit magnetoresistance are the backbone of magnetic sensing and data storage technologies. Here, we report multiple-spin-filter magnetic tunnel junctions (sf-MTJs) based on van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures in which atomically thin chromium triiodide (CrI 3 ) acts as a spin-filter tunnel barrier sandwiched between graphene contacts. We demonstrate tunneling magnetoresistance that is drastically enhanced with increasing CrI 3 layer thickness, reaching a record 19,000% for magnetic multilayer structures using four-layer sf-MTJs at low temperatures. Using magnetic circular dichroism measurements, we attribute these effects to the intrinsic layer-by-layer antiferromagnetic ordering of the atomically thin CrI 3 . Our work reveals the possibility to push magnetic information storage to the atomically thin limit and highlights CrI 3 as a superlative magnetic tunnel barrier for vdW heterostructure spintronic devices.

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Giant tunneling magnetoresistance in spin-filter van der Waals heterostructures

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