Room-Temperature Electric-Field Control of Magnetization in a van der Waals Ferromagnet Fe5GeTe2 for Nonvolatile Memory.

Electric field control of magnetization in van der Waals magnetic materials is key to the development of next-generation high-density and ultralow-power spintronic devices. However, the vdW ferromagnet-based "electrical writing and magnetic reading" memory has not been achieved at room-temperature. Here, the room-temperature electric-field control of magnetization in Fe5GeTe2 via the magnetoelectric coupling effect is reported. Fe5GeTe2 exhibits significant spin-lattice coupling in its magnetically ordered state, as revealed by Raman measurements. By modulating the lattice via strain-mediated interfacial coupling between the ferromagnetic Fe5GeTe2 and the piezoelectric Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.7Ti0.3O3 substrate, a pronounced butterfly-shaped electric-field-dependent magnetization is achieved, with a maximum magnetization change of 1.5 × 10-2 µB per formula unit over an electric field range ofg ±15 kV cm-1 at zero field and 300 K. The heterostructure exhibits two distinct, electrically switchable states-either in magnetization magnitude or magnetoelectric response-under pulsed electric fields. Notably, nonvolatile memory functionality achieved by encoding binary information in the magnetoelectric coefficient offers enhanced durability for long-term data retention compared with encoding based on magnetization magnitude. These findings highlight the potential of van der Waals magnetic materials in next-generation energy-efficient spintronic devices and universal memory applications.