Van der Waals Multiferroic Tunnel Junctions

TL;DR

This paper investigates van der Waals multiferroic tunnel junctions using first-principles calculations, revealing low resistance-area products and multiple resistance states, promising for non-volatile memory devices.

Contribution

It introduces a novel vdW MFTJ design with 2D ferromagnetic and ferroelectric layers, demonstrating multiple resistance states and low RA products, advancing memory technology.

Findings

Multiple non-volatile resistance states achieved

Remarkably low resistance-area product demonstrated

Potential for improved non-volatile memory applications

Abstract

Multiferroic tunnel junctions (MFTJs) have aroused significant interest due to their functional properties useful for non-volatile memory devices. So far, however, all the existing MFTJs have been based on perovskite-oxide heterostructures limited by a relatively high resistance-area (RA) product unfavorable for practical applications. Here, using first-principles calculations, we explore spin-dependent transport properties of van der Waals (vdW) MFTJs which consist of two-dimensional (2D) ferromagnetic FenGeTe2 (n = 3, 4, 5) electrodes and 2D ferroelectric In2Se3 barrier layers. We demonstrate that such FemGeTe2/In2Se3/FenGeTe2 (m, n = 3, 4, 5) MFTJs exhibit multiple non-volatile resistance states associated with different polarization orientation of the ferroelectric In2Se3 layer and magnetization alignment of the two ferromagnetic FenGeTe2 layers. We find a remarkably low RA product which makes the proposed vdW MFTJs superior to the conventional MFTJs in terms of their promise for non-volatile memory applications.