Non-volatile Fermi level tuning for the control of spin-charge conversion at room temperature

Current silicon-based CMOS devices face physical limitations in downscaling size and power loss, restricting their capability to meet the demands for data storage and information processing of emerging technologies. One possible alternative is to encode the information in a non-volatile magnetic state and manipulate this spin state electronically, as in spintronics. However, current spintronic devices rely on the current-driven control of magnetization, which involves Joule heating and power dissipation. This limitation has motivated intense research into the voltage-driven manipulation of spin signals to achieve energy-efficient device operation. Here, we show non-volatile control of spin-charge conversion at room temperature in graphene-based heterostructures through Fermi level tuning. We use a polymeric ferroelectric film to induce non-volatile charging in graphene. To demonstrate the switching of spin-to-charge conversion we perform ferromagnetic resonance and inverse Edelstein effect experiments. The sign change of output voltage is derived by the change of carrier type, which can be achieved solely by a voltage pulse. Our results provide an alternative approach for the electric-field control of spin-charge conversion, which constitutes a building block for the next generation of spin-orbitronic memory and logic devices. Spin-to-charge conversion is the process through with a spin current is converted into charge current. It, along with its inverse effect, represents an essential building block for spintronics devices. Here, Choi et al. demonstrate non-volatile control of spin-to-charge conversion in a ferroelectric and graphene based heterostructure.