A research team led by Professors Tai Min and Tao Li at Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU) has achieved a major breakthrough in the experimental realization of electric field control of magnetism in two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals multiferroic heterostructures. Their work, focusing on Fe₃GaTe₂/CuInP₂S₆ heterostructures, for the first time, demonstrates stable, nonvolatile electric modulation of ferromagnetism at room temperature.
The research, titled "Nonvolatile Electric Control of Ferromagnetism in Van Der Waals Multiferroic Heterostructures at Room Temperature," was published online on May 28, 2025, in Advanced Materials, a leading international journal in the field of materials science. Zhao Hanzhang, a doctoral student at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of XJTU, is the first author. Professors Tai Min and Tao Li serve as co-corresponding authors.
In the field of spintronics, electric-field control of magnetism is regarded as a promising pathway for reducing power consumption in next-generation memory and logic devices. While many 2D van der Waals multiferroic heterostructures have been theoretically proposed to exhibit magnetoelectric coupling, experimental demonstrations, particularly under ambient conditions, remain extremely limited. Additional challenges, such as the low Curie temperatures and poor environmental stability of most 2D magnetic materials, have made it difficult to realize stable, repeatable, and nonvolatile electric-field-controlled magnetic behavior at room temperature.
The team constructed Fe₃GaTe₂/CuInP₂S₆ van der Waals heterostructures leveraging the room-temperature ferromagnetism of the novel 2D material Fe₃GaTe₂ and its interlayer coupling with CuInP₂S₆. They successfully achieved stable and nonvolatile electrically tunable magnetic switching under ambient conditions, making a critical step toward the practical application of 2D magnetoelectric devices.
The research involved a comprehensive set of experimental and theoretical investigations, including 1) Hall measurements revealed distinct changes in magnetic hysteresis loops under varying polarization voltages, indicating stable modulation of the magnetic state. 2) Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) imaging captured the dynamic evolution of magnetic domains under electric field, magnetic field, and temperature stimuli. 3) First-principles calculations unveiled the enhancement of interfacial DMI induced by the polarization states. 4) Micromagnetic simulations reproduced the magnetization switching observed in Hall experiments.
The demonstrated nonvolatile magnetoelectric coupling in a fully 2D material system opens promising avenues for the design of energy-efficient memory, logic devices, and skyrmion-based applications.
Figure 1:
(a) Magnetic hysteresis loops obtained under different polarization voltages; (b) Evolution of magnetic domains in Fe₃GaTe₂/CuInP₂S₆ heterostructures under external magnetic fields; (c) First-principles calculations of magnetic moments of Fe atoms, magnetic anisotropy energy, and DMI coefficients in Fe₃GaTe₂ under different polarization states of CuInP₂S₆; (d) Interface charge transfer from first-principles calculations, identified as the main factor breaking the symmetry of Fe₃GaTe₂; (e) Micromagnetic simulation reproducing the experimental Hall measurement results.
This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China.
Paper Citation:
Hanzhang Zhao, Chao Yang, Yadong Liu, Qiaoqiao Wang, Yongyi Wu, Qiuxuan Mu, Feiyan Hou, Tai Min, Tao Li, Nonvolatile Electric Control of Ferromagnetism in Van Der Waals Multiferroic Heterostructures at Room Temperature, Adv. Mater. 2500534 (2025).
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202500534
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202500534
