Tremendous tunneling magnetoresistance effects based on van der Waals room-temperature ferromagnet Fe$_3$GaTe$_2$ with highly spin-polarized Fermi surfaces

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that Fe3GaTe2, a van der Waals ferromagnet with room-temperature magnetic order, can enable high tunneling magnetoresistance in magnetic tunnel junctions, advancing practical spintronic applications.

Contribution

The paper reveals that Fe3GaTe2's highly spin-polarized Fermi surface leads to significant room-temperature tunneling magnetoresistance, a novel finding for vdW ferromagnets.

Findings

Fe3GaTe2 exhibits magnetic order above room temperature.

Fe3GaTe2-based MTJs show prominent tunneling magnetoresistance.

Potential for Fe3GaTe2 in full vdW spintronic devices.

Abstract

Recently, van der Waals (vdW) magnetic heterostructures have received increasing research attention in spintronics. However, the lack of room-temperature magnetic order of vdW material has largely impedes its development in practical spintronics devices. Inspired by the recently discovered vdW ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2, which has been shown to have magnetic order above room temperature and sizable perpendicular magnetic anisotropy, we investigate the basic electronic structure and magnetic properties of Fe3GaTe2 as well as tunneling magnetoresistance effect in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) with structure of Fe3GaTe2/Insulator/Fe3GaTe2 by using first-principles calculations. It is found that Fe3GaTe2 with highly spin-polarized Fermi surface ensures that such magnetic tunnel junctions may have prominent tunneling magnetoresistance effect at room temperature even comparable to existing conventional AlOx and MgO-based MTJs. Our results suggest that Fe3GaTe2-based MTJs may be the promising candidate for realizing long-waiting full magnetic vdW spintronic devices.