Achieving giant tunneling magnetoresistance and electroresistance through electrical control of Néel vectors
Phys. Rev. B 112, 104435 – Published 24 September, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/jndf-7ys8
Abstract
Effective electrical control and detection of Néel vectors are crucial for antiferromagnetic (AFM) spintronics-based applications. However, the robustness of AFM materials to external magnetic fields and the absence of spin polarization limits their application in magnetic tunnel junctions. Herein, we propose a strategy to achieve both AFM phase transition (Zigzag phase to Néel phase) and electronic phase transition (metal to insulator transition) in through the electrical control using even weak polarization ferroelectric (FE) materials. FE polarization induces charge accumulation in the layer, modulating near-neighbor magnetic exchange interactions to trigger the AFM phase transition. Concurrently, this shifts the energy levels of the primarily occupied orbitals away from the Fermi level, consequently opening a band gap. Utilizing this electric field–controllable phase transition, we design three fully electrically controlled -based multiferroic tunneling junctions, exhibiting up to in-plane tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), 319.27% tunneling electroresistance (TER) and 2178.36% out-of-plane TMR. These giant TMRs and large TERs originate from the changes in the tunneling barrier due to this Néel vector flipping and metal to insulator transition, achieving a performance comparable to the ferromagnetism-based multiferroic tunneling junctions. This flipping effect is robust, as even the weak-polarization, sliding ferroelectric -BN-based multiferroic tunneling junctions can achieve similar performance to . These findings are expected to provide theoretical guidance for developing high-performance, easy-to-write, and easy-to-read AFM magnetic tunnel junctions.