A wafer scale topological semimetal/2D ferromagnet platform for spintronics

The rapid discovery of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) quantum materials has led to heterostructures that integrate diverse quantum functionalities such as topological phases, magnetism, and superconductivity. We used molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) to synthesize a vdW heterostructure that interfaces two material systems of contemporary interest: a 2D ferromagnet (1T-CrTe2) and a topological semimetal (ZrTe2). We demonstrated ferromagnetism and the anomalous Hall effect in CrTe2/ZrTe2 heterostructures down to one unit-cell (u.c.) thick 1T-CrTe2. We also demonstrated efficient current-driven spin-orbit torque (SOT) magnetization switching in these wafer-scale, full vdW topological semimetal/2D ferromagnet heterostructure devices up to about 100 K. [Y. Ou et al., Nature Communications 13, 2972 (2022)]