Semiconductor‐Based Van Der Waals Magnetic Tunnel Junction Devices

ABSTRACT Semiconductor‐based devices are the cornerstone of modern information technology. Due to the advantages of electrical tunability and compatibility with existing microfabrication process, semiconductor spintronic devices have attracted considerable interests for the past few decades. Traditional semiconductors exhibit low spin injection efficiency due to electrical conductivity mismatch and hybridization. Recently, the development of van der Waals (vdW) materials has allowed us to build atomically flat heterostructures and achieve high‐efficient spin injection regardless of dangling bonds. Constructing all‐vdW magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) devices with the abundant semiconductor materials has emerged as a promising direction in spintronics, which has great application prospects. From the perspectives of device structure and physical mechanism, this review classifies semiconductor‐based vdW MTJs into two main categories: vdW MTJs with semiconductor spacers and sf‐MTJs with magnetic semiconductor spin filters. We analyze their development history, working mechanisms, and summarize their recent progress. Moreover, we outline the current challenges in this field and propose an outlook on future research directions.