A Spin-Texture Spin-Valves With Van Der Waals Magnets

All-electrical methods for nucleating, detecting, and manipulating spin textures in 2D van der Waals (vdW) magnets can serve as fundamental building blocks for multi-state spintronic memory, logic, and neuromorphic computing applications. However, detection of such spin textures in such vdW magnets has so far been limited to microscopic techniques. Here, we demonstrate all-electrical detection of spin textures in vdW itinerant ferromagnet Fe₅GeTe₂ using pure spin transport in a lateral graphene spin-valve device at room temperature. By engineering nanoscale constrictions or notches in Fe₅GeTe₂, we create spin textures that inject distinct spin polarizations into the graphene channel, where they are nonlocally sensed by a reference ferromagnetic detector. This enables the observation of anomalous multi-level spin-valve switching and Hanle spin precession signals, which are due to unique spin textures in Fe₅GeTe₂ and in sharp contrast to single-domains and conventional magnet-based devices. This all-electrical approach can provide direct access to the spin textures on an integrated 2D spintronic circuit without the need for ex situ microscopic characterization.