Bipolar Electric-Field Switching of Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions through Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling

Delin Zhang; Mukund Bapna; Wei Jiang; Duarte Sousa; Yu Ching Liao; Zhengyang Zhao; Yang Lv; Protyush Sahu; Deyuan Lyu; Azad Naeemi; Tony Low; Sara A. Majetich; Jian Ping Wang

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03395

Bipolar Electric-Field Switching of Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions through Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling

Delin Zhang, Mukund Bapna, Wei Jiang, Duarte Sousa, Yu Ching Liao, Zhengyang Zhao, Yang Lv, Protyush Sahu, Deyuan Lyu, Azad Naeemi, Tony Low, Sara A. Majetich, Jian Ping Wang

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJs) switched utilizing bipolar electric fields have extensive applications in energy-efficient memory and logic devices. Voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy linearly lowers the energy barrier of the ferromagnetic layer via the electric field effect and efficiently switches p-MTJs only with a unipolar behavior. Here, we demonstrate a bipolar electric field effect switching of 100 nm p-MTJs with a synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer through voltage-controlled exchange coupling (VCEC). The switching current density, ∼1.1 × 105 A/cm2, is 1 order of magnitude lower than that of the best-reported spin-transfer torque devices. Theoretical results suggest that the electric field induces a ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic exchange coupling transition of the synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer and generates a fieldlike interlayer exchange coupling torque, which causes the bidirectional magnetization switching of p-MTJs. These results could eliminate the major obstacle in the development of spin memory devices beyond their embedded applications.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	622-629
Number of pages	8
Journal	Nano letters
Volume	22
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03395
State	Published - Jan 26 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by C-SPIN, one of six centers of STARnet, and is currently supported by ASCENT, one of six centers of JUMP, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program that is sponsored by MARCO and DARPA. Portions of this work were conducted in the Minnesota Nano Center, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Network (NNCI) under Award ECCS-1542202. We would like to thank Dr. Paul M. Haney from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for valuable discussions and suggestions, and Prof. Paul M. Voyles from University of Wisconsin─Madison for providing the STEM images.

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Keywords

Magnetic Tunnel Junctions
Spintronics
Synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer
Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling (VCEC)

PubMed: MeSH publication types

Journal Article

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10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c03395

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@article{15e90bf40e3a4776a08e2b734bd2a075,

title = "Bipolar Electric-Field Switching of Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions through Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling",

abstract = "Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJs) switched utilizing bipolar electric fields have extensive applications in energy-efficient memory and logic devices. Voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy linearly lowers the energy barrier of the ferromagnetic layer via the electric field effect and efficiently switches p-MTJs only with a unipolar behavior. Here, we demonstrate a bipolar electric field effect switching of 100 nm p-MTJs with a synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer through voltage-controlled exchange coupling (VCEC). The switching current density, ∼1.1 × 105 A/cm2, is 1 order of magnitude lower than that of the best-reported spin-transfer torque devices. Theoretical results suggest that the electric field induces a ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic exchange coupling transition of the synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer and generates a fieldlike interlayer exchange coupling torque, which causes the bidirectional magnetization switching of p-MTJs. These results could eliminate the major obstacle in the development of spin memory devices beyond their embedded applications.",

keywords = "Magnetic Tunnel Junctions, Spintronics, Synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer, Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling (VCEC)",

author = "Delin Zhang and Mukund Bapna and Wei Jiang and Duarte Sousa and Liao, {Yu Ching} and Zhengyang Zhao and Yang Lv and Protyush Sahu and Deyuan Lyu and Azad Naeemi and Tony Low and Majetich, {Sara A.} and Wang, {Jian Ping}",

note = "Funding Information: This work was supported in part by C-SPIN, one of six centers of STARnet, and is currently supported by ASCENT, one of six centers of JUMP, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program that is sponsored by MARCO and DARPA. Portions of this work were conducted in the Minnesota Nano Center, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Network (NNCI) under Award ECCS-1542202. We would like to thank Dr. Paul M. Haney from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for valuable discussions and suggestions, and Prof. Paul M. Voyles from University of Wisconsin─Madison for providing the STEM images. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} ",

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T1 - Bipolar Electric-Field Switching of Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions through Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling

AU - Zhang, Delin

AU - Bapna, Mukund

AU - Jiang, Wei

AU - Sousa, Duarte

AU - Liao, Yu Ching

AU - Zhao, Zhengyang

AU - Lv, Yang

AU - Sahu, Protyush

AU - Lyu, Deyuan

AU - Naeemi, Azad

AU - Low, Tony

AU - Majetich, Sara A.

AU - Wang, Jian Ping

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported in part by C-SPIN, one of six centers of STARnet, and is currently supported by ASCENT, one of six centers of JUMP, a Semiconductor Research Corporation program that is sponsored by MARCO and DARPA. Portions of this work were conducted in the Minnesota Nano Center, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Network (NNCI) under Award ECCS-1542202. We would like to thank Dr. Paul M. Haney from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for valuable discussions and suggestions, and Prof. Paul M. Voyles from University of Wisconsin─Madison for providing the STEM images. Publisher Copyright: ©

PY - 2022/1/26

Y1 - 2022/1/26

N2 - Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJs) switched utilizing bipolar electric fields have extensive applications in energy-efficient memory and logic devices. Voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy linearly lowers the energy barrier of the ferromagnetic layer via the electric field effect and efficiently switches p-MTJs only with a unipolar behavior. Here, we demonstrate a bipolar electric field effect switching of 100 nm p-MTJs with a synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer through voltage-controlled exchange coupling (VCEC). The switching current density, ∼1.1 × 105 A/cm2, is 1 order of magnitude lower than that of the best-reported spin-transfer torque devices. Theoretical results suggest that the electric field induces a ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic exchange coupling transition of the synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer and generates a fieldlike interlayer exchange coupling torque, which causes the bidirectional magnetization switching of p-MTJs. These results could eliminate the major obstacle in the development of spin memory devices beyond their embedded applications.

AB - Perpendicular magnetic tunnel junctions (p-MTJs) switched utilizing bipolar electric fields have extensive applications in energy-efficient memory and logic devices. Voltage-controlled magnetic anisotropy linearly lowers the energy barrier of the ferromagnetic layer via the electric field effect and efficiently switches p-MTJs only with a unipolar behavior. Here, we demonstrate a bipolar electric field effect switching of 100 nm p-MTJs with a synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer through voltage-controlled exchange coupling (VCEC). The switching current density, ∼1.1 × 105 A/cm2, is 1 order of magnitude lower than that of the best-reported spin-transfer torque devices. Theoretical results suggest that the electric field induces a ferromagnetic-antiferromagnetic exchange coupling transition of the synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer and generates a fieldlike interlayer exchange coupling torque, which causes the bidirectional magnetization switching of p-MTJs. These results could eliminate the major obstacle in the development of spin memory devices beyond their embedded applications.

KW - Magnetic Tunnel Junctions

KW - Spintronics

KW - Synthetic antiferromagnetic free layer

KW - Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling (VCEC)

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JO - Nano letters

JF - Nano letters

IS - 2

ER -

Bipolar Electric-Field Switching of Perpendicular Magnetic Tunnel Junctions through Voltage-Controlled Exchange Coupling

Abstract

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Keywords

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