Path to Overcome Material and Fundamental Obstacles in Spin Valves Based on MoS 2 and Other Transition-Metal Dichalcogenides

Experimental studies on spin valves with exfoliated 2D materials face the main technological issue of ferromagnetic electrode oxidation during the 2Ds integration process. As a twofold outcome, magne-toresistance (MR) signals are very difficult to obtain and, when they finally are, they are often far from expectations. We propose a fabrication method to circumvent this key issue for 2D-based spintronics devices. We report on the fabrication of NiFe/MoS 2 /Co spin valves with mechanically exfoliated mul-tilayer MoS 2 using an in situ fabrication protocol that allows high-quality nonoxidized interfaces to be maintained between the ferromagnetic electrodes and the 2D layer. Devices display a large MR of 5%. Beyond interfaces and material quality, we suggest that an overlooked more fundamental physics issue related to spin-current depolarization could explain the limited MR observed so far in MoS 2-based magnetic tunnel junctions. This points to a path towards the observation of larger spin signals in line with theoretical predictions above 100%. We envision the impact of our work to be beyond MoS 2 and its broader transition-metal dichalcogenides family by opening the way to an accelerated screening of other 2D materials that are yet to be explored for spintronics.