All-electrical creation and control of giant spin-galvanic effect in 1T′-MoTe₂/graphene heterostructures at room temperature

The ability to engineer new states of matter and to control their electronic and spintronic properties by electric fields is at the heart of the modern information technology and driving force behind recent advances in van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures of two-dimensional materials. Here, we exploit a proximity-induced Rashba-Edelstein (REE) effect in vdW heterostructures of Weyl semimetal candidate MoTe₂ and CVD graphene, where an unprecedented gate-controlled switching of spin-galvanic effect emerges due to an efficient spin-to-charge conversion at room temperature [1]. The magnitude of the measured spin-galvanic signal is found to be an order of magnitude larger than the other systems, giving rise to a giant REE. The magnitude and the sign of the spin-galvanic signal are shown to be strongly modulated by gate electric field near the charge neutrality point, which can be understood considering the spin textures of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling-induced spin-splitting in conduction and valence bands of the heterostructure. These findings open opportunities for utilization of gate-controlled switching of spin-galvanic effects in spintronic memory and logic technologies.

References:
[1] Hoque, M.A. et al. doi:arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.02113 (2018).