Electrically-tunable tunneling anisotropy magnetoresistance in few-layer CrPS₄

Electrical control of spin degree of freedom in magnetic materials lays the foundation of modern spintronics and information technology. Two-dimensional (2D) magnets with stable 2D magnetism have bought new opportunities to manipulate magnetism down to the 2D limit^1,2. For instance, recently gate-induced magnetic phase transition in bilayer CrI₃^3,4 and multiferroism in monolayer NiI₂⁵ have been successfully demonstrated. Despite these progresses, the realization of electrically manipulated magnetization in other 2D magnets is still desirable. In this talk, we report the electrically tunable tunneling anisotropy magnetoresistance (TAMR) in CrPS₄-based magnetic tunnel junctions with a structure of graphite (top gate)/h-BN/graphene/few-layer CrPS₄/graphene/h-BN/graphite (bottom gate). We will first discuss the layer-dependent magnetism in few-layer CrPS₄ through the electrical tunneling magnetotransport measurements. Then, we will focus on the gate dependences of tunneling magnetoresistance and TAMR of the magnetic tunnel junctions. Strikingly, we find that the polarity of the TAMR can be successfully changed by either the applied bias or gate voltage, suggesting that the magnetic anisotropy in CrPS₄ can be modulated by electrical means. Our findings suggest that few-layer CrPS₄ may feature strong magnetoelectric coupling, thus offering a potential platform for realizing nonvolatile memory devices.

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