Observation of Exchange bias effect in ferro-/antiferromagnetic van der Waals heterostructures

Recent discovery of magnetic van der Waals (vdW) materials offers an intriguing possibility for two-dimensional (2D) spintronics. An essential phenomenon for realizing 2D spintronics is the exchange bias effect in ferromagnet (FM)/antiferromagnet (AFM) vdW heterostructures. In a metallic FM /semiconducting AFM vdW heterostructure, we experimentally demonstrate that a finite exchange bias is maintained down to bilayer AFM and it vanishes at monolayer. Moreover, the semiconducting property of AFM allows us to electrically control the exchange bias, providing an energy-efficient knob for spintronic devices.