Two-dimensional non-volatile valley spin valve

TL;DR

This paper proposes a non-volatile valley spin valve using a 2D ferroelectric semiconductor, demonstrating a giant resistance change driven by ferroelectric domain switching and valley-spin locking, advancing valleytronics technology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel non-volatile valley spin valve based on 2D ferroelectric MoS2, combining density functional theory and quantum transport to show giant resistance modulation.

Findings

Resistance change up to 10^7 due to ferroelectric domain switching

Strong dependence of transmission on valley-spin matching

Potential for high-performance nonvolatile valleytronics

Abstract

A spin valve represents a well-established device concept in magnetic memory technologies, whose functionality is determined by electron transmission being controlled by the relative alignment of magnetic moments of the two ferromagnetic layers. Recently, the advent of valleytronics has conceptualized a valley spin valve (VSV) - a device that utilizes the valley degree of freedom and spin-valley locking to achieve a similar valve effect without relying on magnetism. In this study, we propose a non-volatile VSV (n-VSV) based on a two-dimensional (2D) ferroelectric semiconductor where the resistance of the n-VSV is controlled by the ferroelectric domain wall between the two uniformly polarized domains. Focusing on the 1T'' phase of MoS2, which is known to be ferroelectric down to a monolayer and using density functional theory (DFT) combined with the quantum-transport calculations, we demonstrate that switching between the uniformly polarized state and the state with oppositely polarized domains separated by a domain wall results in resistance change of as high as 10^7. This giant VSV effect occurs due to transmission being strongly dependent on matching (mismatching) the valley-dependent spin polarizations in the two domains with the same (opposite) ferroelectric polarization orientations, when the chemical potential of 1T''-MoS2 lies within the spin-split valleys. Our work paves a new route for realizing high-performance nonvolatile valleytronics.