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Updated: Feb 4, 2026
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Residue-Free Fabrication of van der Waals Heterostructures of Two-Dimensional Materials
Published on: July 18, 2025
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Fully Electrically Controlled Generation and Switching of Spin-Polarized Currents in van der Waals Multiferroic
1MOE Key Laboratory of Microstructured Materials, School of Physics Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.
Nano Letters
|February 3, 2026
Summary
Researchers demonstrate nonvolatile electrical control of spin-polarized currents using ferroelectric-ferromagnetic heterostructures. This breakthrough enables switchable half-metallic states for advanced spintronic devices.
Area of Science:
- Condensed Matter Physics
- Materials Science
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Spintronic technologies require precise electrical control of spin-polarized currents.
- Achieving nonvolatile, switchable spin control at the nanoscale is a significant challenge.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate a method for nonvolatile electrical control of spin-polarized transport.
- To explore the potential of ferroelectric/ferromagnetic heterostructures for spintronics.
Main Methods:
- First-principles calculations were employed to investigate the Cr2Si2Te6/Sc2CO2/Cr2Ge2Te6 van der Waals heterostructure.
- Analysis focused on polarization-induced band shifts and interfacial charge transfer.
Main Results:
- The proposed heterostructure exhibits switchable half-metallic states (spin-up and spin-down) by reversing the ferroelectric layer's polarization.
- A fully spin-polarized current with electrically switchable orientations and perfect spin-filtering efficiency was achieved.
- The strategy was validated in other lattice-matched multiferroic heterostructures.
Conclusions:
- Integrating ferroelectric layers into ferromagnetic semiconductors offers a viable route for electrical control of spin-polarized transport.
- This work introduces a new class of multiferroic systems with electrically switchable half-metallicity for next-generation spintronics.
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