Giant modulation of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of Fe3GaTe2 at room temperature through electric fields

Abstract

Manipulating magnetic properties of van der Waals (vdW) ferromagnets has attracted considerable interest for developing two-dimensional ultralow-power spintronic devices. Here, we investigate the modulation of magnetic properties of a room-temperature vdW ferromagnet Fe3GaTe2 by electric-field-induced piezoelectric strains. A dramatic change in the coercivity was observed, with the ~89% increase and ~100% decrease under compressive and tensile piezoelectric strains, applied via (001)-oriented and (111)-oriented Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 substrates, respectively. These changes stem from the increase or decrease of magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of Fe3GaTe2 as the strains shift the electron pockets closer or further from the Fermi energy, respectively. Moreover, macrospin simulations reveal that the applied strains can sensitively modulate the first-order and second-order constants of MAE, reflected in the shape change of magnetic hysteresis loop, consistent with the experimental results. These results provide deeper insights into the underlying physics and pave the way for the development of two-dimensional spintronic devices.