Electric field–controlled spin transport in a topological insulator interfaced with a ferroelectric antiferromagnet
8 affiliations
- 1Materials Science Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- 2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- 3Rice Advanced Materials Institute, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
- 4Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.
- 5Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
- 6Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA.
- 7Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA.
- 8Leibniz-Institut für Kristallzüchtung, Max-Born-Str. 2, Berlin, Germany.
Abstract
Topological insulators have been explored extensively for spin-charge interconversion via magnetic interfaces, yet the true response of their spin-charge conversion, particularly in the absence of an external magnetic field, remains to be studied. Here, we report electric field control of spin-charge conversion in the topological insulator Bi₂Te₃ with the antiferromagnetic multiferroic BiFeO₃, using a nonlocal spin transport device. A systematic thickness dependence of the spin transport across the interface between Bi₂Te₃ and BiFeO₃ reveals a signature of topological surface-state-dominated spin transport in the bilayer system. The spin-charge conversion remains robust for thicknesses above 10 nanometers but falls rapidly with reducing thickness and vanishes at 5 nanometers. This is consistent with hybridization-induced emergence of a trivial insulating phase, which is supported by the coherency factor estimated from the magnetoconductance of Bi₂Te₃. These results establish that spin-momentum-locked surface states dominate interfacial spin transport in the decoupled regime. Beyond presenting efficient spin-charge interconversion at an entirely insulating magnetic interface, this work also highlights sputter-deposited Bi₂Te₃ as a high-quality and scalable platform for integrating quantum materials onto the devices. The nonlocal spin transport approach presented here provides a simple and unprecedented direct evidence of spin-charge conversion and opens an efficient and practical pathway toward designing energy-efficient spin-based devices.
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BibTeX
@article{kumar2026electric,
title = {{Electric field–controlled spin transport in a topological insulator interfaced with a ferroelectric antiferromagnet}},
author = {Yogesh Kumar and Pushpendra Gupta and Xinyan Li and Richa Mudgal and Ashish Omar and Ryan Chen and Mito Funatsu and Maya Ramesh and Nicholas Reiterer and Yuanqi Lyu and Yiping Zeng and Darrell G. Schlom and Alessandra Lanzara and Robert J. Birgeneau and James G. Analytis and Ramamoorthy Ramesh and Sajid Husain},
journal = {Science Advances},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1126/sciadv.aeh2170},
url = {https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aeh2170},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Electric field–controlled spin transport in a topological insulator interfaced with a ferroelectric antiferromagnet
AU - Yogesh Kumar
AU - Pushpendra Gupta
AU - Xinyan Li
AU - Richa Mudgal
AU - Ashish Omar
AU - Ryan Chen
AU - Mito Funatsu
AU - Maya Ramesh
AU - Nicholas Reiterer
AU - Yuanqi Lyu
AU - Yiping Zeng
AU - Darrell G. Schlom
AU - Alessandra Lanzara
AU - Robert J. Birgeneau
AU - James G. Analytis
AU - Ramamoorthy Ramesh
AU - Sajid Husain
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/30
JO - Science Advances
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.aeh2170
UR - https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/sciadv.aeh2170
AB - Topological insulators have been explored extensively for spin-charge interconversion via magnetic interfaces, yet the true response of their spin-charge conversion, particularly in the absence of an external magnetic field, remains to be studied. Here, we report electric field control of spin-charge conversion in the topological insulator Bi₂Te₃ with the antiferromagnetic multiferroic BiFeO₃, using a nonlocal spin transport device. A systematic thickness dependence of the spin transport across the interface between Bi₂Te₃ and BiFeO₃ reveals a signature of topological surface-state-dominated spin transport in the bilayer system. The spin-charge conversion remains robust for thicknesses above 10 nanometers but falls rapidly with reducing thickness and vanishes at 5 nanometers. This is consistent with hybridization-induced emergence of a trivial insulating phase, which is supported by the coherency factor estimated from the magnetoconductance of Bi₂Te₃. These results establish that spin-momentum-locked surface states dominate interfacial spin transport in the decoupled regime. Beyond presenting efficient spin-charge interconversion at an entirely insulating magnetic interface, this work also highlights sputter-deposited Bi₂Te₃ as a high-quality and scalable platform for integrating quantum materials onto the devices. The nonlocal spin transport approach presented here provides a simple and unprecedented direct evidence of spin-charge conversion and opens an efficient and practical pathway toward designing energy-efficient spin-based devices.
SN - 2375-2548
ER -