Gate-controlled proximity effect in superconductor/ferromagnet van der Waals heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that gating can control the proximity effects in 2D superconductor/ferromagnet heterostructures, enabling electrical switching of superconductivity and manipulation of spin-related properties for spintronics applications.

Contribution

It reveals that interface hybridization governs proximity effects in 2D heterostructures and introduces gating as a tool for electrical control of superconductivity and spin phenomena.

Findings

Gating adjusts the hybridization of electronic spectra in heterostructures.

Electrical switching of superconductivity is achieved.

Control over Zeeman splitting amplitude and sign is demonstrated.

Abstract

The discovery of 2D materials opens up unprecedented opportunities to design new materials with specified properties. In many cases, the design guiding principle is based on one or another proximity effect, i.e. the nanoscale-penetration of electronic correlations from one material to another. In a few layer van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures the proximity regions occupy the entire system. Here we demonstrate that the physics of magnetic and superconducting proximity effects in 2D superconductor/ferromagnet vdW heterostructures is determined by the effects of interface hybridization of the electronic spectra of both materials. The degree of hybridization can be adjusted by gating, which makes it possible to achieve a high degree of controllability of the proximity effect. In particular, we show that this allows for electrical switching of superconductivity in such structures on and off, as well as for control of the amplitude and sign of the Zeeman splitting of superconducting spectra, opening interesting opportunities for spintronics and spin caloritronics.