Multiferroicity in atomic van der Waals heterostructures
Multiferroicity in atomic van der Waals heterostructures
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DOI：
10.1038/s41467-019-10693-0
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发表时间：
2019-06-14
影响因子：
16.6
通讯作者：
Zhang, Xiang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gong, Cheng;Kim, Eun Mi;Zhang, Xiang
同时具有铁磁和铁电性的材料（多铁性材料）有望控制不同的铁序，从而推动微波磁电应用和下一代自旋电子学的技术进步。单相多铁性材料受到两种铁性材料所施加的相反 d 轨道占据的挑战，而异质纳米复合多铁性材料要求成分与仅在材料间边界处产生的多铁性具有结构相容性。在这里，我们提出了通过堆叠铁磁 Cr2Ge2Te6 和铁电 In2Se3 原子层来形成二维异质结构多铁性，从而产生全原子多铁性。通过第一性原理密度泛函理论计算，我们发现当In2Se3极化反转时，Cr2Ge2Te6的磁性发生切换，相应地In2Se3因邻近效应而成为可切换的磁性半导体。这种前所未有的多铁二元性（即可切换铁磁体和可切换磁性半导体）使这两个层都能用于逻辑应用。范德华异质结构多铁性为探索基于人工超晶格的低维磁电物理和自旋电子学应用打开了大门。
Materials that are simultaneously ferromagnetic and ferroelectric - multiferroics - promise the control of disparate ferroic orders, leading to technological advances in microwave magnetoelectric applications and next generation of spintronics. Single-phase multiferroics are challenged by the opposite d-orbital occupations imposed by the two ferroics, and heterogeneous nanocomposite multiferroics demand ingredients' structural compatibility with the resultant multiferroicity exclusively at inter-materials boundaries. Here we propose the two-dimensional heterostructure multiferroics by stacking up atomic layers of ferromagnetic Cr2Ge2Te6 and ferroelectric In2Se3, thereby leading to all-atomic multiferroicity. Through first-principles density functional theory calculations, we find as In2Se3 reverses its polarization, the magnetism of Cr2Ge2Te6 is switched, and correspondingly In2Se3 becomes a switchable magnetic semiconductor due to proximity effect. This unprecedented multiferroic duality (i.e., switchable ferromagnet and switchable magnetic semiconductor) enables both layers for logic applications. Van der Waals heterostructure multiferroics open the door for exploring the low-dimensional magnetoelectric physics and spintronic applications based on artificial superlattices.