Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

SPINTRONICS

Room-temperature ferroelectric switching

Nature Electronics volume 4, pages 703–704 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Ferroelectric switching of spin-to-charge conversion can be achieved at room temperature in germanium telluride — a Rashba ferroelectric semiconductor — deposited on a silicon substrate.

Today, electronic devices are largely based on silicon and rely on the charge of electrons. But silicon semiconductor technology is approaching its physical limits and may not be able to meet future scaling requirements. Spintronics1 — where devices use the spin of electrons, as well as their charge — could potentially deliver smaller, faster and more energy-efficient electronic technology. In traditional devices, a charge current is used in which the spins of electrons are randomly orientated; in spintronic devices, a spin-polarized current is possible, which can carry spin information1,2. Spin current can be generated using a variety of methods, but the spin Hall effect and the Edelstein effect, which convert a longitudinal charge current (a current with no spin polarization) to a transverse spin current3,4, are considered to be some of the most efficient. And the opposite effects — the inverse spin Hall effect and the inverse Edelstein effect — can be used to detect spin current by converting spin current into charge current. All of these effects depend on spin–orbit coupling in non-magnetic materials to generate or detect spin currents.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Spin-texture switching of ferroelectric Rashba semiconductors.

References

  1. Fert, A. Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 1517–1530 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Maekawa, S., Valenzuela, S. O., Saitoh, E. & Kimura, T. Spin Current (Oxford Univ. Press, 2017).

  3. Žutić, I., Fabian, J. & Das Sarma, S. Rev. Mod. Phys. 76, 323–410 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Sinova, J., Valenzuela, S. O., Wunderlich, J., Back, C. H. & Jungwirth, T. Rev. Mod. Phys. 87, 1213–1260 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Di Sante, D., Barone, P., Bertacco, R. & Picozzi, S. Adv. Mater. 25, 509–513 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Rinaldi, C. et al. Nano Lett. 18, 2751–2758 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Noël, P. et al. Nature 580, 483–486 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Varotto, S. et al. Nat. Electron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00653-2 (2021).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Ruixiang Fei & Li Yang

  2. Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Li Yang

Authors
  1. Ruixiang Fei
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Li Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li Yang.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fei, R., Yang, L. Room-temperature ferroelectric switching. Nat Electron 4, 703–704 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00660-3

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-021-00660-3

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing