Anisotropic magnetoconductance and Coulomb blockade in defect engineered Cr2Ge2Te6 van der Waals heterostructures

J. Escolar, N. Peimyoo, M. F. Craciun, H. A. Fernandez, S. Russo, M. D. Barnes, and F. Withers
Phys. Rev. B 100, 054420 – Published 14 August 2019
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Abstract

We demonstrate anisotropic tunnel magnetoconductance by controllably engineering charging islands in the layered semiconducting ferromagnet Cr2Ge2Te6. This is achieved by assembling vertical van der Waals heterostructures comprised of graphene electrodes separated by crystals of Cr2Ge2Te6. Carefully applying vertical electric fields in the region of (E25–50 mV/nm) across the Cr2Ge2Te6 causes its dielectric breakdown at cryogenic temperatures. This breakdown process has the effect of introducing subgap defect states within the otherwise semiconducting ferromagnetic material. Low-temperature electron transport through charging islands reveals Coulomb blockade behavior with a strongly gate-tuneable anisotropic magnetoconductance, which persists up to T60 K. We report average tunnel magnetoresistance values of 100%. This work opens new avenues and material systems for the development of nanometer-scale electrically controlled spintronic devices.

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  • Received 10 June 2019
  • Revised 18 July 2019

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.100.054420

©2019 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

J. Escolar, N. Peimyoo, M. F. Craciun, H. A. Fernandez, S. Russo, M. D. Barnes, and F. Withers*

  • Centre for Graphene Science, School of Physics, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QL, United Kingdom

  • *Corresponding author: fwithers2@exeter.ac.uk

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Issue

Vol. 100, Iss. 5 — 1 August 2019

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