Large tunneling magnetoresistance in van der Waals magnetic tunnel junctions based on FeCl₂ films with interlayer antiferromagnetic couplings

Antiferromagnets (AFMs) are some of the most promising candidates for next-generation magnetic memory technology owing to their advantages over conventional ferromagnets (FMs), such as zero stray field and THz-range magnetic resonance frequency. Motivated by the recent synthesis of FeCl2 films with interlayer AFM and intralayer FM couplings, we investigated the magnetic properties of few-layer FeCl2 and the spin-dependent transmissions of graphite/bilayer FeCl2/graphite and Au/n-layer FeCl2/Au magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJs) using first-principles calculations combined with the nonequilibrium Green's function. The interlayer AFM coupling of FeCl2 is certified to be stable and independent of the stacking orders and relative displacement between layers. Furthermore, based on the Au electrode with better conductive performance than the graphite electrode and monolayer 1T-FeCl2 with complete spin polarization, high Curie temperature and large magnetic anisotropic energy, a high tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) ratio of 2.7 × 103% is achieved in Au/bilayer FeCl2/Au MTJs at zero bias and it increases with different layers of FeCl2 (n = 2-10). These excellent spin transport properties of Au/n-layer FeCl2/Au MTJs based on two-dimensional (2D) AFM barriers with out-of-plane magnetization directions suggest their great potential for application in high-reliability, high-speed and high-density spintronic devices.