Strain Tuning of Orbital-Driven Giant Magnetoresistance in van der Waals ferrimagnet Mn$_3$Si$_2$Te$_6$

Abstract

Strain engineering of magnetotransport offers a powerful strategy for uncovering emergent electronic and domain phenomena in quantum magnetic materials, while providing a promising pathway toward next-generation mechanically programmable spintronic technologies. Van der Waals magnets are particularly attractive in this context because their high crystallinity and mechanical flexibility allow exceptionally large, precisely controllable strain, enabling access to strain-induced functionalities unattainable in conventional solids. Here, we report systematic strain control of the van der Waals magnet Mn$_3$Si$_2$Te$_6$, which exhibits an unconventional colossal magnetoresistance whose microscopic origin remains under debate. We demonstrate in situ large-strain modulation of the electrical resistance in bulk crystals and show that the effect can be consistently explained by strain-tunable chiral orbital-current domains. Furthermore, measurements on exfoliated flake devices containing a single chiral domain reveal direct strain control of the electronic structure affected by orbital magnetic moment, establishing a unified microscopic mechanism for the unconventional colossal magnetoresistance. These results identify strain as an exceptionally effective control parameter for tailoring electronic and magnetic states in van der Waals magnets and provide a conceptual framework for realizing spin-straintronic functionalities based on orbital degrees of freedom.