Electric field-tunable ferromagnetism in a van der Waals semiconductor up to room temperature
Ferromagnetic semiconductors, coupling charge transport and magnetism via electrical means, show great promise for spin-based logic devices. Despite decades of efforts to achieve such co-functionality, maintaining ferromagnetic order at room temperature remains elusive. Here, we address this long-standing challenge by implanting dilute Co atoms into few-layer black phosphorus through atomically-thin boron nitride diffusion barrier. Our Co-doped black phosphorus-based devices exhibit ferromagnetism up to room temperature while preserving its high mobility (~ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mn>1000</mml:mn> <mml:mi>cm</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>V</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:msup> <mml:msup><mml:mrow><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:mrow> <mml:mrow><mml:mo>-</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn></mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> ) and semiconducting characteristics. By incorporating ferromagnetic Co-doped black phosphorus into magnetic tunnel junction devices, we demonstrate a large tunnelling magnetoresistance that extends up to room temperature. This study presents a new approach to engineering ferromagnetic ordering in otherwise nonmagnetic materials, thereby expanding the repertoire and applications of magnetic semiconductors envisioned thus far.
Authors
- Deyi Fu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1365-8963)
- Ahmet Avşar (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0173-7242)
- Vitor M. Pereira (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3462-524X)
- Gunasheel Kauwtilyaa Krishnaswamy (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7371-8484)
- Sergey Grebenchuk (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4565-7167)
- Takashi Taniguchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1467-3105)
- Fuchen Hou
- Kenji Watanabe (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3701-8119)
- Junhao Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2195-2823)
- Tingyu Qu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-3072)
- Maciej Koperski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8301-914X)
- Kostya S. Novoselov (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4972-5371)
- Anjan Soumyanarayanan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2680-6005)
- N.L. Yakovlev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5611-9604)
- Oleg V. Yazyev (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7281-3199)
- Y. X. Jie
- Barbaros Oezyilmaz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7665-4578)
- Jiawei Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2071-7546)
- Xiao Chang
- Johan Félisaz
Institutions
- Agency for Science, Technology and Research (SG)
- National University of Singapore (SG)
- Universidade do Porto (PT)
- Xiamen University (CN)
- National Institute for Materials Science (JP)
- Southern University of Science and Technology (CN)
- Shenzhen Bay Laboratory (CN)
- Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (SG)
- École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-11-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-59961-2
- Primary Topic
- 2D Materials and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Ministry of Education, India
- Development and Reform Commission of Shenzhen Municipality
- Southern University of Science and Technology