Nonvolatile electrical control of transport properties in multiferroic OsCl₂/Sc₂CO₂ heterostructure

Ferromagnetic materials play an important role in memory materials, but conventional control methods are often limited by issues such as high power consumption and volatility. Multiferroic heterostructures provide a promising alternative to achieve low power consumption and nonvolatile electric control of magnetic properties. In this paper, a two-dimensional multiferroic van der Waals heterostructure OsCl₂/Sc₂CO₂, which is composed of ferromagnetic monolayer OsCl₂ and ferroelectric monolayer Sc₂CO₂, is studied by first-principles density functional theory. The results show that by reversing the direction of the electric polarization of Sc₂CO₂, OsCl₂ can be transformed from a semiconductor to a half-metal, demonstrating a nonvolatile electrical manipulation of the heterostructure through ferroelectric polarization. The underlying physical mechanism is explained by band alignments and charge density difference. Furthermore, based on the heterostructure, we construct a multiferroic tunnel junction with the tunnel electroresistance ratio of 3.38 × 10¹⁴% and the tunnel magnetoresistance ratio of 5.04 × 10⁶%, allowing control of conduction states via instantaneous electric or magnetic fields. The findings provide a feasible strategy for designing advanced nanodevices based on the giant tunnel electroresistance and tunnel magnetoresistance effects.