Room-Temperature Highly-Tunable Coercivity and Highly-Efficient Nonvolatile Multi-States Magnetization Switching by Small Current in Single 2D Ferromagnet Fe$_3$GaTe$_2$

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates room-temperature, highly-tunable coercivity and efficient multi-state magnetization switching in a single 2D ferromagnet, Fe$_3$GaTe$_2$, using very low electric current and power, advancing 2D spintronics.

Contribution

It introduces a method for electrically tuning coercivity and multi-state switching at room temperature in a single 2D ferromagnet with significantly reduced current and power requirements.

Findings

Coercivity tunable up to ~98% at 300 K with tiny electric fields.

Critical current density for switching is ~1.7E5 A/cm$^2$, much lower than other systems.

Power dissipation for switching is 2-6 orders of magnitude lower than in other 2D ferromagnets.

Abstract

Room-temperature electrically-tuned coercivity and nonvolatile multi-states magnetization switching is crucial for next-generation low-power 2D spintronics. However, most methods have limited ability to adjust the coercivity of ferromagnetic systems, and room-temperature electrically-driven magnetization switching shows high critical current density and high power dissipation. Here, highly-tunable coercivity and highly-efficient nonvolatile multi-states magnetization switching are achieved at room temperature in single-material based devices by 2D van der Waals itinerant ferromagnet Fe$_3$GaTe$_2$. The coercivity can be readily tuned up to ~98.06% at 300 K by a tiny in-plane electric field that is 2-5 orders of magnitude smaller than that of other ferromagnetic systems. Moreover, the critical current density and power dissipation for room-temperature magnetization switching in 2D Fe$_3$GaTe$_2$ are down to ~1.7E5 A cm$^{-2}$ and ~4E12 W m$^{-3}$, respectively. Such switching power dissipation is 2-6 orders of magnitude lower than that of other 2D ferromagnetic systems. Meanwhile, multi-states magnetization switching are presented by continuously controlling the current, which can dramatically enhance the information storage capacity and develop new computing methodology. This work opens the avenue for room-temperature electrical control of ferromagnetism and potential applications for vdW-integrated 2D spintronics.