Interfacial chirality-induced magnetic-field-free switching with high energy efficiency in all-vdW heterostructures

Chirality, a central concept across many scientific disciplines, continues to inspire the discovery of novel physical phenomena.

In condensed matter physics, structural chirality - defined by the absence of mirror plane symmetries - has primarily been explored in bulk materials.

However, new chiral phenomena can emerge uniquely at the interface, distinct from their bulk counterparts, when a chiral material forms a heterostructure.

Here, we demonstrate that all van-der-Waals (vdW) heterostructure composed of the chiral Co1/3TaS2 and the achiral vdW ferromagnet Fe3GeTe2 exhibits two distinct and unconventional spin-orbit torques originating from the interfacial chirality.

These torques enable magnetic-field-free switching of perpendicular magnetization with ultralow current density ~ 10^6 A/cm^2 and minimal power dissipation < 10^15 W/m^3.

Moreover, by replacing Fe3GeTe2 with a similar vdW ferromagnet, Fe3GaTe2, but of higher Curie temperature, we achieved the magnetic-field-free switching at room temperature in the Fe3GaTe2/Co1/3TaS2 vdW heterostructure.

Our findings establish interfacial chirality as a powerful new handle for spintronic control, opening a new pathway to explore chirality-induced phenomena beyond the bulk symmetry constraints - and paving the way toward highly efficient, low-power spintronic devices based on all-vdW heterostructures.