Abstract
For decades, semiconductors and their heterostructures have underpinned both fundamental and applied research across all areas of electronics. Two-dimensional, 2D (atomically thin) semiconductors have now the potential to push further the miniaturization of electronic components, enabling the development of more efficient electronics. Here, we report on a large tunneling magnetoresistance of 1100% at a bias current of 1 nA and a giant anomalous zero-bias spin voltage effect in magnetic tunnel junctions based on 2D materials. The generation, manipulation and detection of electron spin across a nanometer-thick magnetic tunnel junction do not require any applied bias. The large zero-bias spin voltage signal exceeds 30,000%, which is far greater than the highest magnetoresistance signals reported to date. This non-equilibrium spin-engine state arises from the asymmetric diffusion of spin-up/spin-down electrons across the junction. It is driven by the built-in electric field of the junction and occurs under continuous energy exchange of the junction with the environment. Our findings reveal unexplored opportunities to transform and amplify spin information for low-power electronics.
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The data that support the findings of this study are available within the article and the Supplementary Information or available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. All data generated in this study are provided in the Supplementary Information/Source Data file. Source data are provided with this paper.
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Acknowledgements
K.W. is grateful to Prof. H. Ohno for the useful discussion. This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2022YFA1405100), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12241405, 12174384 and 12404146). A.P. acknowledges the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme Graphene Flagship Core 3. T.Z. and I.Ž. were supported by U.S. DOE, Office of Science BES, Award No. DE-SC0004890 (DFT calculations), I.Ž. was supported by U.S. National Science Foundation, Award No. ECCS-2512491 (modeling p-n junctions).
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K.W. conceived the work. W.Z. fabricated the devices, W.Z., Z.W., T.H., C.H., H.L., X.L., Y.D. and Q.L. performed the experiments. W.Z., C.H. and K.W. analyzed the data. Z.W., Y.D., I.Ž. and K.W. carried out the modeling. T.Z. and I.Ž. performed DFT calculations. Z.R.K., Z.D.K. and A.P. provided the InSe bulk crystals and conducted the preliminary studies of InSe. W.Z., Z.W., C.H., L.Z., A.P., I.Ž., H.Z. and K.W wrote the manuscript. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Zhu, W., Wang, Z., Hu, T. et al. Two-dimensional magnetic tunnel p-n junctions for low-power electronics. Nat Commun (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-68043-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-68043-2
