Nonvolatile Electrical Control of Spin‐Polarized Tunneling via Sublattice‐Asymmetric Interfacial Magnetoelectric Coupling
Pengfei Liu, Qi Liu, Xiao‐Yan Guo, Zelalem Abebe Bekele, Ding‐Fu Shao, Lang Chen, Kaiyou WangABSTRACT
Achieving nonvolatile, all‐electric control of spin‐dependent transport properties remains a fundamental challenge in spintronics. Here, we demonstrate nonvolatile electric‐field‐driven control of spin‐polarized tunneling in a multiferroic tunnel junction based on a compensated CoGd ferrimagnet. By switching the ferroelectric polarization, we achieve a clear sign inversion of the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR), clearly indicating the all‐electric control of the spin‐polarized tunneling. Crucially, the opposite polarity of the TMR sign switching observed above and below the magnetic compensation temperature unambiguously proves that this behavior is intrinsically tied to ferrimagnetism. This phenomenon is governed by a synergistic mechanism: the electric field disparately modulates the antiferromagnetically coupled sublattices while simultaneously driving an interfacial electronic reconstruction that inverts the spin polarization at the Fermi level. Exploiting this intrinsic sublattice asymmetry in ferrimagnets elegantly circumvents traditional magnetic switching paradigms, establishing a framework for next‐generation spintronic architectures.