Fu ZhuangEn, Samarawickrama Piumi I, Ackerman John, Zhu Yanglin, Mao Zhiqiang, Watanabe Kenji, Taniguchi Takashi, Wang Wenyong, Dahnovsky Yuri, Wu Mingzhong, Chien TeYu, Tang Jinke, MacDonald Allan H, Chen Hua, Tian Jifa
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA.
Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, 82071, USA.
Nat Commun. 2024 May 1;15(1):3630. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-47820-5.
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 CrI. We reveal that a tunneling current can deterministically switch between spin-parallel and spin-antiparallel states in few-layer CrI, 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 CrI layers. We further demonstrate tunneling current-tunable stochastic switching between multiple spin states of the CrI 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.
有效控制二维磁体中的磁相将在自旋电子学领域取得关键进展，对未来计算技术具有巨大潜力。在此，我们报告一种利用隧穿电流作为控制CrI中自旋态工具的新方法。我们揭示，隧穿电流可根据电流的极性和幅度，在少层CrI中确定性地在自旋平行态和自旋反平行态之间切换。我们提出一种机制，涉及与CrI层接触的石墨烯电极中的非平衡自旋积累。我们进一步证明了CrI隧道器件在多个自旋态之间的隧穿电流可调随机切换，这超越了传统的双稳态随机磁隧道结，且在二维磁体中尚未有记载。我们的发现不仅填补了关于隧穿电流在控制二维磁体磁性方面影响的现有知识空白，还为节能概率计算和神经形态计算开辟了可能性。
