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Continuous manipulation of magnetic anisotropy in a van der Waals ferromagnet via electrical gating

Nature Electronics volume 6, pages 28–36 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Controlling the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic materials is key to the development of magnetic switching devices and spintronic applications. The intrinsic magnetic anisotropy of such materials is typically fixed along a particular direction—the magnetic easy axis. However, if the magnetic anisotropy could be continuously modulated, this could be used to create multifunctional devices. Here we report the gate-tunable modulation of magnetic anisotropy—from an initial out-of-plane to a canted orientation and then finally to an in-plane orientation—in the van der Waals ferromagnet Fe5GeTe2. We use angle-dependent anomalous Hall effect measurements and magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements, combined with quantitative Stoner–Wohlfarth analysis, to show that the magnetic easy axis continuously rotates via a spin-flop pathway and can be modulated in a large range from 2.11 to −0.38 MJ m–3. The tuning of anisotropy can also be achieved by modulating the temperature.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the concept of spin-flop and spin-flip transitions, AHE and magnetic domains in layered FM Fe5GeTe2.
Fig. 2: Temperature- and thickness-dependent magnetic anisotropy in Fe5GeTe2 devices.
Fig. 3: Electrical tuning of magnetic states and magnetic anisotropy energy in gated Fe5GeTe2 devices.
Fig. 4: Gate-tuned spin-flop transition in Fe5GeTe2 devices.

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Source data are provided with this paper. Further data that support the other findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the A3 Foresight Program—Emerging Materials Innovation. We acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. 51861145201 (H.T.Y.), 52072168 (H.T.Y.), 21733001 (H.T.Y.), 91750101 (H.T.Y.), 51732010 (Z. Liu), 52090020 (Y.T.), 52288102 (Y.T.) and 12204232 (F.Q.)), the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundations of China (grant no. U21A2086 (Z. Liu)), the National Key R&D Program of China (grant nos. 2018YFA0306200 (H.T.Y.) and 2021YFA1202901 (J.H.)), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BK20220758 (F.Q.)) and KAKENHI grant JP19H05602 (Y.I.) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and JST PRESTO (grant no. JPMJPR19L1 (T.I.)).

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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Ming Tang, Junwei Huang, Feng Qin.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Ming Tang, Junwei Huang, Feng Qin, Zeya Li, Fanhao Meng, Linglu Wu, Xiangyu Bi, Caorong Zhang, Ling Zhou, Peng Chen, Caiyu Qiu & Hongtao Yuan

  2. School of Physics, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Ming Tang, Caorong Zhang, Haijun Zhang & Xiangang Wan

  3. Center for High Pressure Science, State Key Laboratory of Metastable Materials Science and Technology, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, China

    Kun Zhai, Anmin Nie, Lin Wang, Zhongyuan Liu & Yongjun Tian

  4. Quantum Phase Electronic Center and Department of Applied Physics, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Toshiya Ideue & Yoshihiro Iwasa

  5. Institute for Solid State Physics, The University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Japan

    Toshiya Ideue

  6. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China

    Peizhe Tang

  7. Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Center for Free Electron Laser Science, Hamburg, Germany

    Peizhe Tang

  8. RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science, Wako, Japan

    Yoshihiro Iwasa

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Contributions

H.T.Y., Y.I. and L. Wang conceived this project. K.Z., L. Wang, Z. Liu and Y.T. grew the Fe5GeTe2 crystals. A.N. and Y.T. performed structural characterization using scanning transmission electron microscopy. M.T., C.Z., L.Z. and C.Q. fabricated the devices. M.T., J.H., P.C. and Z. Li performed the electrical measurements. X.B. performed thickness characterization using atomic force microscopy. M.T., F.M. and L. Wu performed the polar MOKE measurements. M.T., F.Q., T.I., P.T., H.Z., X.W. and Y.I. analysed the transport data. M.T., F.Q. and H.T.Y. wrote the manuscript with input from all the authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Toshiya Ideue, Lin Wang or Hongtao Yuan.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–25, Tables 1–4 and Notes 1–17.

Supplementary Video 1

Evolution of magnetic domains for the Fe5GeTe2 flake shown in Figs. 1f and 2a.

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Source Data Fig. 2

Statistical source data.

Source Data Fig. 3

Statistical source data.

Source Data Fig. 4

Statistical source data.

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Tang, M., Huang, J., Qin, F. et al. Continuous manipulation of magnetic anisotropy in a van der Waals ferromagnet via electrical gating. Nat Electron 6, 28–36 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41928-022-00882-z

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