Fig. 1: Proximity-induced spin-galvanic effect in graphene-MoTe₂ van der Waals heterostructure at room temperature.

a, b The spintronic device schematics with the measurement scheme and colored scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image consisting of graphene (gray)/MoTe₂ (blue) heterostructure on Si/SiO₂ substrate, ferromagnetic (FM) and non-magnetic (Ti/Au) contacts on graphene. The scale bar in the SEM image is 6 µm. c A schematic band diagram of modified graphene in a heterostructure with MoTe₂, showing Rashba spin-split conduction and valence bands in accordance with the energy in momentum space (E_k), where Fermi energy (E_f) is in the conduction band. Application of an electric field with such spin texture is expected to create a spin accumulation due to the Rashba-Edelstein effect (REE), and inversely, a spin accumulation can be converted to a charge voltage via inverse Rashba-Edelstein effect (IREE). d Measured spin-galvanic effect as a non-local voltage (V_SGE) signal due to IREE by injecting a spin current (I_s) from a FM into the graphene-MoTe₂ heterostructure region. A change in V_SGE is measured by sweeping a magnetic field along the x-axis (B_x) with an application of I = 80 µA, the gate voltage V_g = −10V in Dev 1 at room temperature. The green and blue arrows denote the FM magnetization and direction of the diffused spin into the graphene-MoTe₂ heterostructure, respectively. e, f Measured bias dependence of V_SGE signal and its magnitude ΔV_SGE as a function of bias current in Dev 1. A linear background is subtracted from the data and shifted in the y-axis for clarity. The line is the linear fit to the data in f. The error bars are calculated from the noise level of the manifested signals and not clearly visible because error bars are smaller than the data points.