Electrical Readout of an Insulating van der Waals Magnet

Recently discovered two dimensional magnets are a promising platform for spintronic devices. Fabrication methods that exploit the weak interlayer bonding in van der Waals (vdW) crystals allow for two dimensional heterostructures with clean interfaces without concern for dangling bonds or lattice mismatches. However, as of yet there is no mechanism that allows for read-out of the magnetic state of vdW magnets with high signal-to-noise ratios and impedances consistent with semiconductor electronics. Here, we report experiments to study how proximity coupling within heterostructures containing insulating vdW magnets and other vdW materials – graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides – affects their longitudinal resistance, Hall resistance, and other transport characteristics, with the aim of developing additional approaches for efficient electrical read-out of the magnetic state.