Strain-Engineered Giant Tunneling Magnetoresistance in Fe-Intercalated MoS2 van der Waals Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

Abstract

This work proposes an all-two-dimensional magnetic tunnel junction consisting of Fe-intercalated MoS2 ferromagnetic electrodes and a pristine bilayer MoS2 tunneling barrier. We systematically investigate the modulation mechanism of out-of-plane tensile strain on the spin-transport properties of the device using quantum transport simulations. The results reveal that Fe intercalation induces a semiconductor-to-ferromagnetic-metal transition in MoS2 and the magnetic moment increases progressively under tensile strain. Under an applied tensile strain of 3%, the MTJ achieves an ultrahigh tunneling magnetoresistance of 1.67 × 105% accompanied by a spin injection efficiency of 90%. The enhancement of spin-dependent tunneling efficiency under tensile strain originates from a Fermi level shift of the electrodes and modulation of the spin asymmetry of the interfacial Schottky barrier. By integrating atomic intercalation with strain engineering, this work establishes a new paradigm for designing high-performance, low-power two-dimensional spintronic devices.