Unconventional bias-dependent tunneling magnetoresistance in van der Waals ferromagnetic/semiconductor heterojunctions
Two-dimensional van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnetic/semiconductor heterojunctions provide an ideal platform for studying and exploiting tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) effects, due to the versatile band structure of semiconductors and high quality of their interfaces. In all-vdW magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) devices, both the magnitude and sign of TMR can be tuned by an applied voltage. Typically, as the bias voltage increases, the amplitude of TMR initially decreases, followed by a reversal and/or oscillation in its sign. Herein, we report on an unconventional bias-dependent TMR observed in all-vdW Fe<sub>3</sub>GaTe<sub>2</sub>/GaSe/Fe<sub>3</sub>GaTe<sub>2</sub> MTJs, where TMR first increases, then decreases, and ultimately undergoes a sign reversal as the bias voltage increases. By considering the coherent degree of in-plane electron momentum <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>k</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>∥</mml:mo></mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> and the decay of the electron wave function through the semiconductor spacer layer, our theoretical prediction successfully explains this unconventional bias-dependent TMR. Consequently, our results offer a deeper understanding of bias-dependent spin-transport in semiconductor-based MTJs and provide new insights into semiconductor spintronics.
Authors
- Wenkai Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6770-5548)
- Haixin Chang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9621-4457)
- Shihong Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1469-7788)
- A. Patanè (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3015-9496)
- Weihao Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3161-094X)
- Yuqing Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4583-6365)
- Gaojie Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2378-058X)
- Hao Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9423-198X)
- Lin‐Wang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7061-2692)
- Xiaomin Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0535-7060)
- Jing Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3412-9374)
- Meng Ye (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2210-3396)
- Kaiyou Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6017-7575)
- Shouguo Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7997-4483)
- Qirui Cui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-6165-3237)
- Lixia Zhao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2068-4732)
- Hui Wen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1574-7379)
Institutions
- University of Nottingham (GB)
- Tiangong University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- AlbaNova (SE)
- Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics (CN)
- Institute of Semiconductors (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-10-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64551-3
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Quantum and electron transport phenomena
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 4.99
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- National Key Research and Development Program of China