Two-dimensional materials with multiple degrees of freedom, including spin, valleys, and orbitals, open up an exciting avenue for engineering multifunctional devices. Beyond spintronics, these degrees of freedom can lead to novel quantum effects such as valley-dependent Hall effects and orbital magnetism, which could revolutionize next-generation electronics. However, achieving independent control over valley polarization and orbital magnetism has been a challenge due to the need for large electric fields. A recent breakthrough involving pentalayer rhombohedral graphene has demonstrated the ability to individually manipulate anomalous Hall signals and orbital magnetic hysteresis, forming what is known as a valley-magnetic quartet. Here, we leverage the electrically tunable ferro-valleytricity of pentalayer rhombohedral graphene to develop nonvolatile memory and in-memory computation applications. We propose an architecture for a dense, scalable, and selector-less nonvolatile memory array that harnesses the electrically tunable ferro-valleytricity. In our designed array architecture, nondestructive read and write operations are conducted by sensing the valley state through two different pairs of terminals, allowing for independent optimization of read/write peripheral circuits. The power consumption of our PRG-based array is remarkably low, with only ∼6 nW required per write operation and ∼2.3 nW per read operation per cell. This consumption is orders of magnitude lower than that of the majority of state-of-the-art cryogenic memories. Additionally, we engineer in-memory computation by implementing majority logic operations within our proposed nonvolatile memory array without modifying the peripheral circuitry. Our framework presents a promising pathway toward achieving ultra-dense cryogenic memory and in-memory computation capabilities.
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March 2025
Research Article|
January 22 2025
Harnessing ferro-valleytricity in pentalayer rhombohedral graphene for memory and compute
Md Mazharul Islam
;
Md Mazharul Islam
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis)
1
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee
, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
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Shamiul Alam
;
Shamiul Alam
(Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology)
1
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee
, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
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Md Rahatul Islam Udoy
;
Md Rahatul Islam Udoy
(Investigation, Methodology)
1
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee
, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
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Md Shafayat Hossain
;
Md Shafayat Hossain
(Conceptualization, Investigation, Methodology)
2
Department of Physics, Princeton University
, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
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Kathleen E Hamilton
;
Kathleen E Hamilton
(Conceptualization, Supervision)
3
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
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Ahmedullah Aziz
Ahmedullah Aziz
a)
(Supervision)
1
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee
, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996, USA
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]
Appl. Phys. Rev. 12, 011402 (2025)
Article history
Received:
August 02 2024
Accepted:
December 10 2024
Citation
Md Mazharul Islam, Shamiul Alam, Md Rahatul Islam Udoy, Md Shafayat Hossain, Kathleen E Hamilton, Ahmedullah Aziz; Harnessing ferro-valleytricity in pentalayer rhombohedral graphene for memory and compute. Appl. Phys. Rev. 1 March 2025; 12 (1): 011402. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0231749
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