Nonvolatile Electrical Control of Transport Properties in Multiferroic OsCl2/Sc2CO2 Heterostructure

Abstract Ferromagnetic materials play an important role in memory materials, but conventional control methods are often limited by issues such as high power consumption and volatility. Multiferroic heterostructures provide a promising alternative to achieve low power consumption and nonvolatile electric control of magnetic properties. In this paper, a two-dimensional multiferroic van der Waals heterostructure OsCl 2 /Sc 2 CO 2 , which is composed of ferromagnetic monolayer OsCl 2 and ferroelectric monolayer Sc 2 CO 2 , is studied by first-principles density functional theory. The results show that by reversing the direction of the electric polarization of Sc 2 CO 2 , OsCl 2 can be transformed from a semiconductor to a half-metal, demonstrating a nonvolatile electrical manipulation of the heterostructure through ferroelectric polarization. The underlying physical mechanism is explained by band alignments and charge density differences. Furthermore, based on the heterostructure, we construct a multiferroic tunnel junction with a tunnel electroresistance ratio of 3.38 × 10 14 % and a tunnel magnetoresistance ratio of 5.04 × 10 6 %, allowing control of conduction states via instantaneous electric or magnetic fields. The findings provide a feasible strategy for designing advanced nanodevices based on the giant tunnel electroresistance and tunnel magnetoresistance effects.