Chirality, a central concept across many scientific disciplines, continues to inspire the discovery of novel physical phenomena. In condensed matter physics, structural chirality—defined by the absence of mirror plane symmetries—has primarily been explored in bulk materials. However, new chiral phenomena can emerge uniquely at the interface, distinct from their bulk counterparts, when a chiral material forms a heterostructure. Here, we demonstrate that all van-der-Waals (vdW) heterostructure composed of the chiral Co_1/3TaS₂ and the achiral vdW ferromagnet Fe₃GeTe₂ exhibits two distinct and unconventional spin-orbit torques originating from the interfacial chirality. These torques enable magnetic-field-free switching of perpendicular magnetization with ultralow current density  and minimal power dissipation . Moreover, by replacing Fe₃GeTe₂ with a similar vdW ferromagnet, Fe₃GaTe_2, but of higher Curie temperature, we achieved the magnetic-field-free switching at room temperature in the Fe₃GaTe₂/Co_1/3TaS₂ vdW heterostructure. Our findings establish interfacial chirality as a powerful new handle for spintronic control, opening a new pathway to explore chirality-induced phenomena beyond the bulk symmetry constraints – and paving the way toward highly efficient, low-power spintronic devices based on all-vdW heterostructures.

 

Authors : Kai-Xuan Zhang, Suik Cheon, Seungbok Lee, Joonyoung Choi, Jihoon Keum, Hyuncheol Kim, Yeochan An, Woonghee Cho, Suhan Son, Jingyuan Cui, Pyeongjae Park, Younjung Jo, Jun Sung Kim, Hyun-Woo Lee & Je-Geun Park

 

Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-75548-x