Tunable magnetoelectric coupling and electrical features in an ultrathin Cr₂Si₂Te₆/In₂Se₃ heterostructure

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) heterostructures based on multiferroic materials have potential applications in novel low-dimensional spintronic devices. In this work, we have investigated a strong magnetoelectric coupling and electrical dependence between single layer (1L) Cr₂Si₂Te₆ and In₂Se₃. By switching the direction of ferroelectric polarization in In₂Se₃, we observed a significant magneto-crystalline anisotropy energy (MAE) enhancement of Cr₂Si₂Te₆. The analysis of the spin-resolved orbital-decomposed band structure shows stronger magnetoelectric coupling between the In₂Se₃ and Cr₂Si₂Te₆ layers. The modulation of the electrical features could also be achieved in the switching of the ferroelectric polarization. Furthermore, the switching of Ohmic-Schottky contacts in the heterojunction with different polarization states was successfully achieved under the effect of strain engineering. Based on these findings, we design a novel 2D ferroelectric-ferromagnetic heterojunction that exploits the controllability and nonvolatility of ferroelectrics to modulate the electrical properties of the device. These findings indicate the high application potential of Cr₂Si₂Te₆/In₂Se₃ multiferroic heterojunctions in spintronics.