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    Achieving giant tunneling magnetoresistance and electroresistance through electrical control of Néel vectors

    Fangqi Liu1, Shichen Zhang2, Zhenhua Zhang2,3, Tongtong Wang4, Yong Liu1, Zhihong Lu2,3, Lei Shen5,*, Sicong Zhu5,2,†, and Rui Xiong1,‡

    • 1Key Laboratory of Artificial Micro- and Nano-structures of Ministry of Education, School of Physics and Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, People's Republic of China
    • 2Hubei Province Key Laboratory of Systems Science in Metallurgical Process, The State Key Laboratory for Refractories and Metallurgy, Collaborative Innovation Center for Advanced Steels, International Research Institute for Steel Technology, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, People's Republic of China
    • 3School of Material Science and Technology, Wuhan University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430081, People's Republic of China
    • 4School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
    • 5Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117575, Singapore

    • *Contact author: shenlei@nus.edu.sg
    • †Contact author: sczhu@wust.edu.cn
    • ‡Contact author: xiongrui@whu.edu.cn

    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 FePSe3 through the electrical control using even weak polarization ferroelectric (FE) materials. FE polarization induces charge accumulation in the FePSe3 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 FePSe3/In2Se3-based multiferroic tunneling junctions, exhibiting up to 1015% 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 h-BN-based multiferroic tunneling junctions can achieve similar performance to In2Se3. These findings are expected to provide theoretical guidance for developing high-performance, easy-to-write, and easy-to-read AFM magnetic tunnel junctions.

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